INTRODUCTION. 



The bud moth {Erciinctis flai'i striata) is apparently not a na- 

 tive insect, ahhough it is not at present known elsewhere. It is 

 an example of an insect of other habits becoming attached to an 

 introduced cultivated plant, i. e., sugar cane. It is always to be 

 found in the cane fields of the Hawaiian Islands, and usually very 

 numerous ; but it also retains its habits of feeding on various 

 other plants. It is usually not particularly injurious, as it cus- 

 tomarily feeds on the dead and drying tissues of the leaf sheaths- 

 of sugar cane; but when very numerous and on particularly soft 

 varieties of cane the caterpillars do considerable eating of the 

 epidermis, and also eat into the buds and destroy them, occasion- 

 ing a good deal of loss where the cane is desired for cuttings to 

 plant. 



Associated with this species are often also the cater])illars of 

 several other species of moths, some of which feed in dead cane 

 sticks or in the tunnels of the cane borer {Sphenophonis ob- 

 scunis) as well. 



This bulletin treats of the habits of the bud moth and its lepi- 

 dopterous associates, and also their parasites so far as any are 

 known. 



Of the twenty or more species of Erciinctis, very little is known 

 regarding their habits. They are distributed from West Indies 

 to Marquesas, Fiji, Hawaii, N^ew Zealand, Australia, India, and 

 Cevlon ; but there are onlv two species which are known from 

 more than one localitv : iniiiiiscula in West Indies and Hawaii; 

 siiniilans in Hawaii, Marquesas, Fiji, and Ceylon. Aside from 

 the species herein treated, one species {inloptcra) in Australia 

 has been bred from a pupa in bark of a fibrous-barked species of 

 Eucalyptus (Meyrick).i An Indian species (seiniiik'ora) was 

 bred from a pod of Cassia occidcntalis (Walsingham).- This is 

 in accord with the habits of our species ; for of our five species^ 

 siniiilans feeds on bark and wood of dead trees ; luinusciila in dead 

 wood and pods of various leguminous trees and plants ; flainstriata 

 on dead leaves, etc., of sugar cane, palms, and various other plants. 

 It is probable that when the habits of other species of the genus 

 are studied, thev will be found quite similar. 



1 p. L. S., N. S. W., V. p. 2fi0, 1881. 



" Indian Museum Notes, IV, p. 107, PI. VII, Fig:. 2, 1899. 



