630 



AN INTRODUCTION TO ENTOMOLOGY 



keeping it from blowing awa}^ The overwintering larvae are half- 

 grown. When full-grown some transform in the heads, but many 

 go down and bore in the stems and transform there. 



Cosmopteryx. — "The little moths belonging to the genus Cos- 

 mopteryx are probably familiar to anyone who has collected and ob- 

 served insects in nature. Who has not occasionally on a warm mid- 

 summer day met with a slender little streak of gold and silver sitting 

 in the sunshine on a leaf in a protected corner and twirling its long 

 white-tipped antennae in graceful motions If, when examined more 

 closely, it is found to be a smooth shining little moth, brown with 

 silvery lines on palpi and antennae, and with a striking broad golden 



IUU<lBUIILB.SHItl 



Fig. 772. — Homaledra sabalella: larva, pupa, adult, and part of injtu-ed leaf. 

 (From the Author's Report for 1879.) 



or orange fascia across the outer half of the wing, bordered on both 

 sides by bright metallic scales, then you have a Cosmopteryx." 



"The larvae are leaf -miners, and the mines are easily distinguished 

 from most others by the scrupulous cleanliness with which the larva 

 ejects all its frass through a hole, so that the mine remains clear 

 and white. At maturity the larva changes its color from green to a 

 vivid purple or wine-red, leaves the mine, and spins a matted flattened 

 cocoon of silk." (Busck '06). 



Among the better-known members of this family are the following : 

 Stagmatophora gleditschicBella. — The larva burrows in the thorns of 

 locust. 



Mompha ■■eloisella. — There are several species of Mompha that 

 infest the fruit and pith of the evening primrose. The best-known of 

 these is this one. 



Psacdphora terminella: — The larva is a miner in willow-herb, 

 Epilohiuni. 



