^2> 



The larvae of this tiny httle moth. I have found feeding in 

 various situations, most frequently on dead vegetable matter or 

 refuse substances, hence, not particularly injurious. I have found 

 them feeding beneath leaf-sheaths of dead cane, also in borered 

 cane sticks, and in places where the leaves are dirty and sticky 

 from having been attacked by Aphis or leaf-hoppers. I have 

 also found them feeding in the tassels. Once I found them very 

 numerous in sweet corn ears feeding on the "silks," inner husks, 

 the pith, and other parts of the cob. I have also seen them in 

 ears of field corn, eating into the kernels of corn and into the 

 cob. Anotiier time I observed them numerously on a large 

 wood}' twining bean vine, feeding on dying leaves and ripening 

 pods, especially where there was an accumulation of debris, webs, 

 frass, etc., on account of infestation by mealy bugs, Lccaniuui, 

 Tortrix, and Cryptohlabcs larvae. Similarly, I have found them 

 feeding on lantana infested by Orthccia. and on palm leaves in- 

 fested with mealy bugs and leaf-rollers ; also on dead leaves of 

 pandanus. banana, and various other plants. On the banana, I 

 have found them feeding in the bunch on the dead or injured 

 fruit, and on the skin of the ripened fruit, which they have pene- 

 trated sometimes and eaten into the fruit inside. 



Mr. D. T. Fullaway has reported it from cotton infested with 

 mealy bugs. The original description of the species is from 

 specimens bred from rotten cotton-bolls in the United States. 

 It has been present in these Islands for a num^ber of years no 

 doubt, as they were found by Dr. Perkins when he first came 

 (1892), though it is not included in the Fauna Hawaiiensis. 



The other species of this genus show a variety of habits so far 

 as these are known. Some breed in heads of Juncus ^ and 

 sedges, catkins, and seeds of poplar and willow,"' in plant galls '* 

 (though not producing them), pine needles.^*^ others in webs of 

 other larvae and of spiders ;'■' and one Australian species feeds 

 on the San Jose scale and other scale insects.^ ^ A Hawaiian 

 species feeds on ferns. 



* Meyrick, P. L. S., N. S. W., XXII. p. 301, 303. 305. 1898. 

 9 Walsingham, Tr. Am. Ent. Soc, IX, p. 199, 1882. 

 ^" Meyrick. Handbook of British Lepidoptera. p. 662, 1895. 

 11 Froggatt, Australian Insects, p. 280. 



