SNOUT MOTHS 



3085 



furniture. T. tapetzella, a larger species, attacks more exclusively furs, skin rugs, 

 etc. A figure of the larvae of one species will be found on p. 3084. In the allied 

 corn moth ( T. granella) the caterpillar is very destructive to corn in granaries, 

 feeding indiscriminately upon various kinds of grain. The female lays one or two 

 eggs on a single corn grain; and after the deposition of all the eggs, the bodies of the 

 adults may be found in numbers in spider webs in places which they frequent. The 

 presence of the caterpillar may be known by the ' ' pass ' ' or excrement on the 

 grains. Several grains may be spun together, the larva feeding within the shelter 

 of the receptacle thus formed. Figures of both moth and larva are given on the 

 opposite page. Of certain allied species there are no English names, so 

 that they must be mentioned by their scientific titles. Among these, Depressaria 

 nervosa, figured in the illustration, appears on the wing from June to Septem- 

 ber, and has reddish-gray fore-wings mottled and streaked with black dots. The 

 female lays her eggs upon cumin, and the larvae soon after they emerge spin together 

 the flower heads, feeding on the seeds and blossoms. When about to enter the 

 pupal state, the larva bores its way into the centre of the food plant, gnaws out a 

 suitable chamber, closes the entrance with a little door of silk, and remains safe 

 from the attacks of insidious insect foes. In the same illustration is figured 

 Hyponomeuta malinella, a familiar moth during June and July in English apple 

 orchards. The satiny white fore-wings, with three longitudinal rows of black dots, 

 render it a beautiful and conspicuous object as it rests on the apple tree by day, or 

 flies to and fro beneath the trees as the evening 

 draws on. The female lays her eggs in an elongated 

 cluster on an apple twig, and the presence of the 

 larvae first becomes apparent owing to the silky 

 gauze net with which the tiny larvae spin the leaves 

 together, enlarging their domicile as occasion re- 

 quires. When full fed, they pupate also in the 

 web, so that numbers of tiny pupae nestle side by 

 side where the larvae were wont to feed. When 

 alarmed, the caterpillars drop to the ground sus- 

 pended by a thread, crawling actively away among 

 the grass. 



Another family is typified by the genus Coleo- 

 phora, which embraces about seventy species of 

 small moths, characterized by their long narrow 

 wings, margined with long delicate fringes, the first 

 joint of the antennae often bearing a tuft of hair. 

 The larvae live in little cases, in which they pass 



the winter, turning to the pupa in the spring. As an example of the genus, we 

 figure the larch mining moth (C. larcinella) , which is a dull colored moth, whose 

 larvae eat their way into the needles t the tip of young larch trees, the needles 

 attacked, and indeed often the whole bunch, turning yellow and withering. The 

 caterpillar is full fed toward the end of May, when it spins its little case fast to a 

 larch needle, and turns to a pupa within. A few weeks later the moth emerges at 



I.ARCH MINING MOTH. 



