150 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



for one or more species of caterpillar. The oak nourishes in 

 this country alone about 200 species; nearly 100 different 

 kinds feed on evergreen trees, eating the buds and leaves, 

 boring in the branches, and, in short, attacking the tree in 

 a variety of ways, so that there is a place and abundance of 

 food for each kind of caterpillar. In their chrysalis state 

 they are comparatively safe from harm. Nature has thus 

 favored the Lepidoptera above all other insects except the 

 flies, beetles, and Hymenoptera. From their number and 

 variety, their beauty of color, attractiveness of form, and the 

 ease with which they can be collected and their caterpillars 

 reared, the butterflies and moths are the favorites of ento- 

 mologists. 



The larger moths and the butterflies are for convenience 

 called Macrolepidoptera, and the species of the lower fam- 

 ilies, from the Pterophoridae to the Pyralidas, are called 

 Microlepidoptera. 



Family Pterophoridae. — The plume-winged moths are recognized by 



their fissured and plume like wings; 

 the body is unusually slender, with 

 long antennae and legs. The larvae 

 are spindle-shaped, rather hairy; the 

 hairs are often hollow and secrete 

 a viscid fluid which exudes in a 

 dew-like drop from the end. They 

 spin no cocoon, but, fastening them- 

 selves within a curled leaf by their 

 tail, shed their larval skin and ap- 

 pear in the chrysalis state. Ptero- 

 phorus periscelidactylus Fitch 

 abounds on the grape-vine, eating 

 the young leaves and fruit-buds. 



Family Tineidae.— This great 

 group (which is perhaps rather a 

 super-family with several families 

 included in it) is characterized by 

 the slender body, long, narrow, 

 often pointed wings of both pairs, 

 with long fringes, by their usually 

 minute size, and their rich, often 

 metallic markings. Tbose with 

 broad, blunt wings, like Tortricids, 

 may be distinguished by the long, 

 slender, pointed labial palpi. It is 

 difficult to give the family char- 

 acters of the larvae ; usually slender 

 and slightly spindle-shaped, it is almost impossible to separate them 



Fig 



179. — Grape Pterophorus. 

 larva; b, pupa; d, moth. 



