LEPIDOPTERA. 21 Qi 



the interior of this that the caterpillar constructs itself a hard cocoon, 

 resembling leather, and it changes into a brownish chrysalis. 



A species of the genus Butalis, the Btitalis or Aliicita granella, 

 is, in certain cantons of France, one of the greatest pests to agri- 

 culture. The caterpillar of the Tinea granella undergoes its 

 metamorphosis in the interior of grains of barley 

 and of wheat, which it devours without being per- 

 ceived from without. The female lays her eggs on 

 the grains of corn before they are ripe. From 

 four to six days after, the eggs are hatched, and 

 the young caterpillars are hardly as thick as a hair. Tine?graneiia. 

 Each one takes possession of a grain of corn, and 

 penetrates into it by an imperceptible opening. They eat the flower 

 without injuring the teguments of the grain. 



When it has attained its full size it spins itself a cocoon of white 

 silk in the interior of the grain, which, after having been its lodging 

 and its larder, becomes for some time its tomb. It has, however, 

 taken care beforehand to make at the extremity of the grain a circular 

 opening, through which the moth may come out when the grains have 

 been threshed and stored up in the granary. 



It is important to mention the Tineina, not because these little 

 moths are beautiful — they are, on the contrary, very dingy — but 

 because it is in this group that are found those insects which do 

 the greatest damage to our crops. The moths of the genus Tinea 

 are very small. Their wings, which are greyish or brownish, are 

 generally marked with whitish and yellowish spots or lines. These 

 are the little moths which, in our houses, burn themselves so fre- 

 quently in the flames of the candles (Fig. 292). 



Their caterpillars are small, voracious, and deserve, on account of 

 the damage which they cause, to be compared to rats and mice. 

 Furnished with powerful jaws, they destroy everything they find in 

 their way, such as woollen stufls, hair, furs, feathers, grain, &c. 



The Tineina are divisible into three groups: ist, the species 

 hurtful to our stufls and furs ; 2ndly, the species which destroy our 

 corn crops ; srdly, the phytophagous species, that is to say, those 

 which feed on plants. 



In the first sub-division must be classed the Fur Moth, the 

 Woollen Moth, and the Hair Moth. 



The Woollen Moth is represented in the figure on next page. Its 

 caterpillar has the form of a worm, and is of a glossy whiteness, with 

 a few hairs thinly sprinkled over it and a grey line on its back. It is 

 enclosed in a tube, or sheath, open at both ends, in the interior of 



