130 DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTORIA: 



are almost microscopic in size, and are not infrequently 

 mounted on glass slides for microscopic observations. As 

 a rule the larvae of nearly all the Tineid moths, also their 

 close allies, feed upon or within the leaves of plants, but 

 many, as we all know, live within nuts and fruits, dried 

 as well as fresh. A few feed upon dead animal matter, 

 as woollens, furs, featliers, and some, as Professor Com- 

 stock remarks, are predaceous, destroying the so-called 

 scale bugs ; and again referring to the probable number of 

 species of this group. Professor Comstock, in his noble 

 work, Manual for the Studij of Insects, says there are 

 over one thousand described species in America alone. 

 In America they have a very serious pest, " The Apple 

 Bacculatrix " [BacculatrLv poniifotella\ which as this 

 pest may some day be introduced here by means of the 

 American apple cases or in packing 1 have thought it 

 better to eive some account of as described bv Professor 

 Comstock in the work above alluded to. " This insect 

 differs in habits in several respects from any of the 

 Tineids described here. The larva infests the leaves of 

 the apple, and when full grown it makes a small white 

 cocoon, which is attached to the lower surface of a 

 twig. The cocoons sometimes occur in great numl)ers, 

 side by side, on the twigs of an infested tree. They are 

 easily recognised by their shape, being slender and ribbed 

 lengthwise. It is these cocoons that usually first reveal 

 the presence of this pest in an orchard. They are very 

 conspicuous during the winter, when the leaves are off 

 the trees. At this time each cocoon contains a pupa. 

 The adult moth emerges in early spring (about Septem- 

 ber and October in the north-east and north-west part of 

 Victoria). The eggs are laid on the lower surface of the 

 leaves. Each larva, when it hatches, bores directly from 

 the edge to the upper surface of the leaf, where it makes a 

 brown serpentine mine. When these mines are abundant in 

 a leaf it turns yellow and dies. When the larva has made 

 a mine from one-half to three-fourths of an inch long, 

 which it does in from four to five days, it eats its way out 



