THE ANIMAL LIFE OF THE GROUP. 423 



On the wing these tiny moths Hy with a rapid, confused flight and alight 

 with the wings folded closely together over the body. As a rule they are 

 protectively colored and secrete themselves in crevices in the bark, and beneath 

 the dead leaves in the forest, with snch skill as to defy detection even by the 

 practiced eye. 



While their habits vary greatly, many of the species develop to the adult 

 stage within the tissue of leaves, and in this way come to be called leaf- 

 miners.i*'- Usually each species of the leaf -miner group infests some par- 

 ticular kind of plant or at least closely allied plants. So constant are these 

 creatures in their leaf-mining habits that an expert entomologist can often tell 

 the species of insect infesting the plant by the characteristic mine that it 

 makes. Some species produce galls on certain plants, others feed on fruits^ 

 live in silken tunnels in dead grass and leaves, on the bark of dead trees ; some 

 produce webs in koa trees, and so on imtil it has been found that almost every 

 imaginable habitat has been occupied by them. 



Although the great majority of the species belonging to the Murohpidoptera 

 are found in the mountains, there are many, both native and introduced, that 

 may be seen about residences, in gardens or doing damage to field crops of 

 various kinds. Perhaps the species mo.st liable to attract the attention of ordi- 

 nary observers are the morning-glory leaf-miners,^''^ both of which are intro- 

 duced in Hawaii. The destructive cotton boll-worm^"* is also an abundant 

 introduced species that bores into the seeds of the cotton. The clothes 

 moth;if'5 the tobacco leaf -miner,'"" boring into potatoes and into fruits and 

 stems of tomatoes, are two common species in Hawaii. The corn moth,i"" 

 feeding in the kernels of corn stored in cribs, and in rice, is also a common 

 pest. Thus the list might be indefinitely extended and made to include many 

 species of more or less interest or importance. The species are so minute, 

 however, and are so much like one another, that their determination is neces- 

 sarily the work of a specialist. But from the standpoint of the native fauna, 

 especial mention shoidd be made of the large, variable Hawaiian genus Hypos- 

 niocoma, in which more than one hundred and seventy-five native species have 

 been identified by Lord Walsingham. This list has since been extended by 

 local entomologists. The larva- make for themselves many styles of cases or 

 cocoons which are located in such places as on the bark of trees, on rocks, dead 

 twigs, or dead wood. A peculiarity of the genus is the variable form, size, 

 color and construction of the cases which are made by the different species. 



The Dragon-Flies .\nd the Nerve-Winged Insects. 



The dragon-fly may very properly be taken as a type of the order includ- 

 ing the nerve-winged insects,'"'* in which all f(mr wings are membranous and 

 furnished with numerous veins and usually with many cross-veins. Ento- 

 mologists have differed among themselves as U> just what tlic limits of the 



io' Tineidip. ^o' BedeUia somniileiilrlla and B. niiiwr. '"* a,-!i-<-liin !,i.s.s!,,Hellii. ">' Tiiun prllionella. 

 '"" Phlhorimaa opereiilella. i°' Hitotvoini cereatflta. ■"* yeuraiitrrn. 



