278 THE INSECT WORLD. 



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

 culture. The caterpillar of the Alucita granella undergoes its 

 metamorphosis in the interior of grains of barley and of wheat, 

 which it devours without being perceived 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 

 Fig. 292. Aiucita hardly as thick as a hair. Each one takes pos- 

 session of a grain of corn, and penetrates into 

 it by an imperceptible opening. They eat the flour 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 Tineina 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 frequently in the flames of the candles. 



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 stuffs, hair, furs, feathers, 

 grain, &c. 



The fineina are divisible into three groups : 1st, the species 

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

 our corn crops ; 3rdly, 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 following figure. Its 



