MOTHS 85 



The allied family of small, often minute, moths, 

 known as Tineida, includes many hundreds of in- 

 digenous species, whose wings are usually narrow and 

 pointed, fringed with long hairs. The larvae generally 

 live in concealment, but they have very various 

 habits. Many, such as the bramble-leaf miner, 1 make 

 tortuous tunnels between the upper and lower epider- 

 mis of leaves. Some spin leaves together. Not a few 

 feed on stored goods of various kinds, and are very 

 destructive, among these being the clothes-moths 

 of our boxes and wardrobes. Indeed, the common 

 yellow clothes-moth, known as Tineola Uselliella, is a 

 very good type of the family as a whole. 



We now come to the two families of " plume- 

 moths." The first, or Ptcnphoride t may be repre- 

 sented by the white plume, 2 whose wings are divided 

 by deep clefts between the chief nervures two clefts 

 in each fore- wing, three in each hind- wing. The 

 larva is hairy, and feeds on convolvulus leaves. The 

 pupa is suspended from a leaf by its tail, like the 

 chrysalides of some butterflies ; but it is incompletely 

 obtected, and certain of its abdominal segments are 

 freely movable. The twenty-four plume 3 is the sole 

 British member of the second family the Qrneodida 

 and has each wing six-cleft almost to the base. This 

 little moth stands apart from, and at a higher level 

 than, the preceding families, but agrees with those 

 that follow in the fact that its pupa is completely 

 obtected, with little power of movement. Its larvae 

 feed among the flower-buds of honeysuckle. 



The family Pyralida includes about 150 British 

 species, which are arranged in several sub-families. 



1 Nepticula aurella. 2 Pterophoruspentadactylus. 



3 Orneodcs hexadactyla. 



