268 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE GRAPE. 



segment one. The first brood of caterpillars are full grown 

 about the last of July, when they change to chrysalids, from 

 which the moths escape early in August; the second brood 

 of larvae are found on the vines in September. 



The chrysalis (3, Fig. 277) is about half an inch long and 

 of a dark-brown color. It is usually formed within the 

 folded leaf; hence the last brood which pass the winter in 

 this inactive state may, in a great measure, be destroyed by 

 carefully going over the vineyard late in the season, before 

 the leaves fall, and picking off the folded leaves and burning 

 them ; or the larvae may be destroyed earlier in the season by 

 crushing the folded leaves, taking care that the active occu- 

 pants do not escape. Although this insect is usually common, 

 it is seldom very destructive anywhere. 



No. 144. The Gartered Plume-moth. 



Oxyptilus pwiscelidactylus (Fitch ) . 



The family of moths to which this insect belongs are called 

 plume-moths, from their having the wings divided into feather- 

 like lobes. 



The larva (Fig. 278, a) appears on the grape-vines in spring, 

 as soon as the young foliage has fairly started, fastening the 

 terminal leaves into a spherical form, and living within the 

 enclosure, where it feeds on the tender leaves and young 

 bunches of blossom. It is usually solitary in its habits, 

 but sometimes two or three are found together. When full 

 grown, which is usually early in June, it is about half an inch 

 long, and is of a yellowish-green color, with transverse rows 

 of dull-yellow tubercles, from each of which arises a small 

 tuft of white hairs. There is a line down the back of a 

 deeper green, and the body is paler between the segments. 

 The head is small, yellowish green, with a band of black 

 across the front; feet black, tipped with pale green; the pro- 

 legs, which are long and thin, are greenish. When matured, 

 it spins a few silken threads on the under side of a leaf, or 

 in some other convenient spot, and, having entangled its hind 



