374 



The Moths and Butterflies 



Among the Frenatae there is a host of small obscure moths commonly 

 lumped by collectors and amateurs under the name Microlepidoptera, which 



are little known because little 

 studied, but which professional 

 entomologists recognize as in- 

 cluding all together eleven moth 

 families grouped into three dis- 

 tinct superfamilies. Among these 

 microlepidoptera are probably the 

 most generalized of the frenate 

 FIG. 529. FIG. 530. moths. 



FIG. 529. The palmer-worm moth, Ypsolophus The three microlepidopterous 

 P^atellus. (After Fitch; twice natural superfamilies are the Tineina, 



FIG 530. The strawberry root-borer, Anarsia including the clothes-moths, leaf- 

 lineatella. (After Saunders; moth and larva mmers , and Others, the Tortri- 

 both natural size and enlarged.) 



cina, including most of the leaf- 

 rollers, the notorious codlin-moth and others, and the Pyralidina, including 

 certain leaf-rollers and folders, the close-wings, the curious plume-moths, the 

 injurious meal-moths, and the bee-moth, principal pest of the bee-keeper. 



The Tmeidae, only family of the Tineina, are best known by their house- 

 hold representatives, the clothes-moths. Of these there are several species, 

 the moths themselves looking much alike, although distinguished by some 

 differences in marking, but the larvae, the stage in which the injury to woolens, 

 etc., is done having noticeable differences in habit. The moths lay their 

 eggs on garments and stuffs, preferably woolen, hanging in dark closets or 

 stored in trunks or dressers, and the small white larvae feed on the dry 

 animal fibers of which the cloth is made. The larva of the most familiar 

 species, the case-bearing clothes-moth, Tinea pellionella (Fig. 527), makes 

 a small free tubular case out of bits of cloth fibers held together by silk spun 

 from its mouth; the larva of the tapestry-moth T. tapetzella, a rarer species, 

 attacks thick woolen things, as blankets, carpets, and hangings, burrowing 

 into the fabric and forming a long winding tunnel or gallery partially lined 

 with silk; the larva of the webbing clothes-moth, Tinea biselliella, a species 

 especially common in the Southern States, although not infrequent in the 

 North, spins no case or gallery, but makes a cobweb covering over the 

 substance it is feeding on. The larva? of all the species, when ready to 

 pupate, make a cocoon out of bits of woolen tied together by silken threads 

 in which to transform. The moths, on issuing, rest during the day on the 

 garments or stuffs, but fly about at night, often coming to the lights in 

 rooms. They are all small, pellionella and biselliella expanding about ^ 

 inch and tapetzella inch; pellionella has grayish -yellow fore wings with- 

 out spots, and tapetzella has the fore wings black at base and creamy- 



