Pyralidae 



upon freshly grown and sapid food, it is transformed into a pupa, 

 from which the moth presently emerges. The moth closely 

 resembles the next species, but the student, by the study of its 

 habits and of the case, which is always straight, and not crooked, 

 as is that of the following species, may at once discriminate it. 

 (2) Mineola indigenella Zeller. (The Rascal Leaf-crumpler.) 



Syn. nebula Walsh; zelatella Hulst. 



This moth is common in 

 the Valley of the Mississippi 

 and in Ontario, but does not 

 appear to be very common in 

 the Eastern States, and is un- 

 known in the extreme south- 

 ern portions of our region. 

 It is very common in western 

 Pennsylvania. 



Professor C. V. Riley de- 

 scribes its habits as follows: 

 "It is one of those insects 

 which is hardly noticed while 

 it is carrying on its most de- 

 structive work; for it is most 

 voracious during the leafy 

 months of May and June, 

 and is then more or less hid- 

 den by the foliage of the tree, 

 which it so effectually helps to denude. 



FIG. 228. M. indigenella. a, case; b, 

 case wrapped in debris of leaves; c, head 

 of larva; d, moth, enlarged. (After Riley.) 



But the nakedness of 

 winter, though it does not reveal the surreptitious worm, lays 

 bare and renders conspicuous its little house, and these houses 

 these "larval cases whether closely attached in clusters to the 

 twigs as in Figure 228, b, or hidden in a few seared and silk-sewn 

 leaves as at Figure 229, are unerring tokens of past injury to the 

 tree, and symbols of increased injury in the future, unless re- 

 moved. The bunches of leaves anchored to the tree by strong 

 silken cables and breasting defiantly every winter's wind are, 

 indeed, significant insignia upon which is written in characters, 

 if not in words 'result of careless culture and unpardonable 

 neglect.' 



There is but one brood a year, and the larva, about one-third 

 409 



