OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 105 



ITS NATURAL HISTORY'. 



During the summer months the moth frequently Hies into our dwell- 

 ings. In 1868, during the months of May, June and July, it was one 

 of the most abundant species attracted to the light of my room in St. 

 Louis, from the fact, doubtless, that there were infested clover stacks 

 in the neighborhood. These moths, with the wings of a lilaceous 

 purple, marked, as in the illustration, with golden-yellow (Fig. 28, 5, c), 

 may frequently be seen, on a cloudy day, or in the evening, flitting 

 around where clover is being stacked or stored. The eggs must be 

 fastened to such clover as the females can find access to by creeping 

 into the crevices and fissures which a stack affords. The worms, of 

 different shades of olive-brown (Fig. 28, i,, 2), flourish on their dry 

 food; and generally dwell within a delicate cylinder of silk (7), There 

 are, doubtless, two or more broods during the year, and they may be 

 found in raid-winter of all sizes, retaining activity with the thermom- 

 eter below freezing point. The cocoon is formed either near the out- 

 side of or entirely away from the stack, or mow, and generally under 

 some piece of board or other sheltering substance.. 



It is a little curious that while the moth has long been known 

 in Europe, and is figured and described in several popular English 

 works under the trite vernacular name of " Gold-fringe," its larva is 

 yet unknown there; and certainly nothing is on record thereof its 

 attacking clover in the manner in which it does with us. H. Noel 

 Humphrey, in "The Genera of British Moths," (p. 124), refers to it 

 under the generic name of Hypsopigia^ and quotes its larva as '' said 

 to feed on Poplars," a say-so, not likely to be founded on fact. Mr. 

 Kobt. McLachlan, the well-known English neuropterist, on the con- 

 trary, told me while at his house, that the moth, though by no means 

 common in England, had been seen flying around hay-stacks, and had, 

 he thought, been bred from dry raspberry canes. 



REMEDIES. 



From what we now know of the habits of this insect, (and there 

 is much yet, in detail, to learn), the only way to defeat its attacks is 

 by adopting certain preventive measures : First, as the worms feed 

 solely on dry clover, it follows that during summer they must be con- 

 fined to such unfed hay as remains over from the previous year's mak- 

 ing. Therefore, new hay should never be stacked in contact with old. 

 The occurrence of the worms in such prodigious and destructive num- 

 bers, as indicated in the above-quoted paragraphs, must appear some- 

 what exceptional, when we consider how wide-spread the insect is; 



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