Pterophoridse 



Genus FLODIA Guenee 

 (i) Plodia interpunctella Hubner. (The Indian-meal Moth.) 



Syn. zea Fitch. 



The larva of this moth has a propensity to feed upon almost 

 anything edible which comes in its way. it feeds upon Indian 

 meal with particular avid- 

 ity, but does not disdain 

 grain of any kind, v/hole 

 or ground. It breeds in 

 all sorts of dried fruits 

 and vegetables. It eats 

 English walnuts, is said 

 to invade beehives, and is 

 known at times to dam- 

 age herbariums and to 

 attack collections of dried 

 insects. There is nothing 

 which seems to come 

 amiss to its appetite, and 

 it is, when established in a house or store-room, a veritable nui- 

 sance. There are, according to the temperature of the building 

 which it inhabits, from four to seven generations a year, and the 

 reader cf these lines will do well to remember that if the thing 

 has establis ' itself under his roof it will require industry, pa- 

 tience, and great regard to cleanliness and order to get rid of it. 



Fig. 236. — P. interpunctella. a, moth; b, 

 pupa ; c, larva ; d, front view of head of larva ; 

 e, lateral view of segment of larva. All figures 

 enlarged. (After Chittenden, " Bull. U. S. 

 Dept. Agric.,"New Sen, No. 4, p. 119.) 



FAMILY PTEROPHORID/E 



" Nature never did betray 

 The breast that loved her ; 't is her privilege, 

 Through all the years of this our life, to lead 

 From joy to joy." 



Wordsworth. 



The Plume-moths, as they are called, constitute a comparatively 

 small family of elegant insects, in which the wings are divided 

 in such a manner as to suggest feathers. The hind wings are 

 generally trifid, sometimes quadrifid; the fore wings are gener- 

 ally bifid, sometimes trifid. The larvae are slow in movement, 

 clumsy in appearance, and live on the surface of leaves. They 



415 



