May 22, 1916 Ornix geminatella 293 



Brunn's (i) description of the adult is very good. To the unaided 

 eye the moth is slate-gray with a slight tinge of brown, being lighter in 

 rufifled specimens. The ventral surface of the body is lighter in color. 

 The markings on the front two pairs of legs are similar. The tarsal 

 segments are white, tipped with black; the tibia and femur vary from 

 dark brown to black with lighter patches; the coxae are mottled with 

 white and dark scales. The tarsal segments of the hind legs are brownish 

 with white basal bands, while the tibia, femur, and coxa are much lighter, 

 being nearly the same color as the lower surface of the abdomen. The 

 palpi are prominent and banded with white and dark scales. The 

 brownish proboscis is unusually long, reaching to beyond the base of the 

 abdomen which, though it has not been observed to do so, would lead 

 one to conclude that the moth feeds. The antennae are brownish in 

 color and distinctly annulate with whitish. In life they are closely 

 pressed along the sides of the body and reach to be5^ond the tip of the 

 abdomen and wings. 



The surface of the forewings is beautifully mottled with light and 

 dark scales. The light scales are arranged in eight or nine more or less 

 distinct transverse bands. In museum specimens it is difficult to dis- 

 tinguish these bands. Near the tip of the forewings in fresh specimens, 

 is a distinct black patch of scales bordered without by three alternating, 

 narrow, white and black curving bands, giving to the tip of the wings a 

 distinct peacock spot. On the hinder margin of the front wings the 

 black and white scales forming the terminal peacock spot give way to 

 long, light-colored hair. This border of delicate hair ceases near the mid- 

 dle of the hinder margin of the wing. The hind wings are slender and 

 armed on the hinder margin with a broad band of delicate light-colored 

 hair. This band becomes narrower toward the tip of the wing. The 

 costal band is scarcely as broad as the wing (PI. XXXIII, fig. i). 



The moth has a wing expanse of from 7 to 9 mm. and is approximately 

 5 mm. long when at rest with the wungs folded. 



NUMBER OF BROODS 



This species winters in the pupa stage in a carefully prepared cocoon 

 protected by the folded-over edge of a leaf. In the spring the adults are 

 abundant by the first week in May. By the middle of May the typical 

 tentiform mines begin to appear, and the adults of the first spring brood 

 begin to emerge by the last of May. The life cycle is completed in from 

 four to five weeks. The broods overlap, but beginning with May a 

 fairly well-defined brood can be made out for each month until November. 

 The larvae of the October brood pupate and live through the \vinter on 

 fallen leaves. After the moths emerge a considerable period of time elapses 

 before the mines begin to appear. This is undoubtedly due to the fact 

 that the moth, with its well-developed proboscis, feeds for a time before 

 ovipositing. 



36289°— 16 2 



