332 THE TINEINA. 



leaves^ and covered instead with a quantity of dingy 

 white webs_, soiled with the excrements of the cater- 

 pillars. About the beginning or middle of June, 

 these little destroyers have satisfied their voracious 

 appetites_, and attained their full growth. They then 

 measure from a third to nearly half an inch in 

 length, and are usually of a dingy yellow colour, with 

 a black head, and a black spot on each side of each 

 abdominal segment, the latter surrounded by small 

 black points, each bearing a hair. They then undergo 

 their change to the pupa state in the interior of their 

 common web, but each caterpillar spins a separate web 

 for himself, and in the course of a few days the 

 moths make their appearance. 



On comparing the structure of this insect with that 

 of the members of the groups which we have ah'eady 

 passed, we shall find that the principal character by 

 which they are distinguished consists in the pecuhar 

 formation of the wings. These are of an elongated 

 form, entire, and deflexed on the sides of the body 

 during repose, and their margins, especially those of 

 the hinder wings, are furnished with a long and 

 beautifully silky fringe. This peculiarity, in fact, 

 forms one of the most striking characters of the tribe 

 of the TiNEiNA, to which the Ermine Moth belongs; 

 and in many of the species it is far more striking, the 

 posterior wings being frequently reduced to a slender, 

 tapering membrane, bearing a very small proportion 

 to the broad fringe which surrounds it. In other re- 

 spects the Tineina approach pretty closely to the Tor- 

 tricina ; like these, they have slender bodies and long 

 antennse ; the latter organs frequently exceeding the 

 body in length. They are all of small size, and some 

 of them are the most minute of Lepidopterous insects, 



