PYRAUSTIDA. 207 
The small moth has bluish-gray fore-wings, with a 
bluish dot near the center of each, and a dark line crossing 
them immediately beyond the dot. Two forms are illus- 
trated in Fig. 200. 
All the following moths are usually called ‘“‘micro’’ or 
small, although as a matter of fact some of them are as 
large or even larger than a few of the *‘macros”’ described 
before. But generally speaking all are small. They are also 
divided into many superfamilies and families. 
PYRALIDIDA. 
This super-family includes moths of medium and small 
size, which differ so greatly in appearance, however, that it 
is not possible to give a general description that would 
serve to characterize the same. It includes a number of 
families that contain numerous insects injurious to plants. 
FAMILY PYRAUSTIDZ. 
These moths have slender bodies rather thinly covered 
with scales. The caterpillars are nearly always green, with 
pale stripes and spots, and without any markings what- 
ever. Their head is either black or yellow, hard and pol- 
ished; so is the rather prominent cervical-shield on the first 
thoracic segment. Most of them have the abdominal or 
false legs crowded with a complete circlet of spines, and by 
this character, which is easily seen, we can tell with almost 
absolute certainty the caterpillar of a micro from that of a 
macro, in which the circlet of hooks is never complete. The 
caterpillars of the Pyraustide differ from those of the loop- 
ers by possessing all four pairs of prolegs. Most of them 
can produce a little silk, and they live often more or less con- 
cealed in leaves folded and tied together in various ways. 
Some few are gregarious and build large nests. Most of 
these caterpillars cause no injury to cultivated plants, while 
some of them are decidedly destructive. 
