Blastobasidae 



where it has been known from time immemorial as an enemy of 

 umbelliferous plants. A full account of the insect is given by 

 Riley in "Insect Life," Vol. I, p. 9^. To this the reader may 

 refer. The remedy for the insect is to gather the portions of the 

 plants which have become infested, and to burn them. The in- 

 sects, many of which conceal themselves in the stems or are hid- 

 den in the foliage, are thus most conveniently destroyed. 



Genus SEMIOSCOPIS Hubner 



(i) Semioscopis merricella Dyar, Plate XLVIII, Fig. 38, ?. 



This is not at all an uncommon insect in western Pennsyl- 

 vania. There are numerous specimens in the collection of the 

 writer which have been taken during the past twenty years. 



FAMILY BLASTOBASiD/B 



This is a considerable family of minute moths, as representa- 

 tive of which we have selected for illustration a species of the 

 genus Holcocera, to 

 which Professor Riley 

 applied the specific 

 name glandulella, be- 

 cause it infests acorns. 

 The Acorn-moth is an 

 inquiline; that is to 

 say, it takes possession 

 of the remnants of the 

 repast left in the acorn 

 by the grub of a wee- 

 vil, which has devel- 

 oped within the fruit 



and forsaken its burrow in order to undergo transformation else- 

 where. Between the weevil and the larva of the moth very little 

 is left of the contents of the acorn, and farmers who expect to 

 derive sustenance for their hogs from the oak-mast are often dis- 

 appointed. The accompanying cut shows the different stages in 

 the development of the larva, and also the moth. The insect is 

 quite common in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. 



429 



Fig. 248.—//'. glandulella. a, acorn showing 

 larva; b, acorn showing opening left for moth; c, 

 enlarged view of head of larva ; d, lateral view of 

 segment; e, dorsal view of segment; /, moth; g, 

 nodule to which antenna articulates. (After Riley.) 



