LEPIDOi .fERA PREDATORY ON BARK-LICE. 77 



growth in ten or twelve days ; their pupa stage lasts about the same 

 length of time, unless belated in June or July, in which case they re- 

 main in pupa until the heat moderates in August or September. Tlie 

 caterpillars are first seen in March, but are not common until April or 

 ^lay. The moths are most abundant in June, but disappear in mid 

 suiinner and appear again in the fall. There are at least two, and pos- 

 sibly three, broods in the spring and early summer, and one in the fall. 

 The pui)a' and a few belated larvae may be fouud in winter at any time. 



The Pale Dakruma { D. pall id a Comstock). — Another species, closely 

 resembling the preceding and having similar habits, is described by 

 Professor Comstock (Eept. Comm. Agric. for 1879, p. 243) from gall-like 

 Coccids on Oak. From its similarity of habit this species may be ex- 

 l»ected to feed upon Orange Scale-insects, although it has not been actu- 

 ally observed to do so. It is known from the first species by its lighter 

 color in both the adult and larval stages. 



Scale-eatino Tineid.2 (Fig. 37.) — The caterpillars of a Tineid moth 

 with habits very similar to Dakruma, are found eating various Coc- 

 cids, and have also been observed to feed 

 upon the common Long and Chaff Scales ^^^^ 

 on Orange. Several si)ecimens of the '""' 

 moth were bred in winter from larva' , 



inhabiting tightly -rolled dead leates in- A \ • — \ — 



volved in the webs of a social leaf-eating / \ 



cater] )illar {Anccglis). The leaves thus Fi<i-3i.-scaie.eattngTi7ieid. (Original.) 



occupied had been infested by Scale-insects, and the scales within the 

 retreat of the larva? were all gnawed and partially devoured. 



In summer the same species is found forming silken galleries like 

 those of Dakruma upon orange branches infested with Diaspinous scales. 



The following observations of the habits were made ui)on several 

 larva' placed upon a twig of Orange covered with Long Scale {Mytihifi. 

 pis gloverii). The larvne began at once to make a tangle of web in a fork 

 of the twig, which was afterwards extended into a gallery along the 

 branch. From time to time a larva reached out and tore a scale from 

 the bark. Sometimes it devoured the whole scale, with the contained 

 insect; again it turned the scale over and ate the contents, eggs and 

 mother Coccid, retreating finally to its gallery and taking with it the 

 ('ini)ty shell, which it fastened in its web. Occasionally the caterpillars 

 detached from tlu^ bark and fastened in their web scales with their liv- 

 ing contents'untouched.* Prom the frequent additions made to it, the 

 letreat of the caterpillars soon became entirely coated with fragments, 

 and could with difiiculty be distinguished from the surrounding bark. 



'' Tli« conteuts of these scales were, however, sooner or later devoured. The larv;c 

 also frequently gnawed into a scale at one end and pulled out and devoured tlic in- 

 Kt'ct, leaving; tlit- empty scale still attached t<> tin- liark. Tlwy also jHi- sparingly the 

 gummy exudations of the bark. 



