Pteropboridae 



Genus PLODIA Guene"e 

 (i) Plodia interpunctella Hiibner. (The Indian-meal Moth.) 



Syn. zees Fitch. 



The larva of this moth has a propensity to feed upon almost 

 anything edible which comes in its way. It feeds upon Indian 

 meal with particular avid- 

 ity, but does not disdain 

 grain of any kind, whole 

 or ground. It breeds in 

 all sorts of dried fruits 

 and vegetables. It eats 

 English walnuts, is said 

 to invade beehives, and is 

 known at times to dam- 

 age herbariums and to 



FIG. 236. P. interpunctella. a, moth ; 

 pupa ; c, larva ; d, front view of head of larva ; 

 e, lateral view of segment of larva. All figures 

 enlarged. (After Chittenden, "Bull. U. S. 

 Dept. Agric.,"New Ser., No. 4, p. 119.) 



attack collections of dried 

 insects. There is nothing 

 which seems to come 

 amiss to its appetite, and 

 it is, when established in a house or store-room, a veritable nui- 

 sance. There are, according to the temperature of the building 

 which it inhabits, from four to seven generations a year, and the 

 reader cf these lines will do well to remember that if the thing 

 has establis " itself under his roof it will require industry, pa- 

 tience, and great regard to cleanliness and order to get rid of it. 



FAMILY PTEROPHORID/E 



" Nature never did betray 

 The breast that loved her ; 't is her privilege, 

 Through all the years of this our life, to lead 

 From joy to joy." 



WORDSWORTH. 



The Plume-moths, as they are called, constitute a comparatively 

 small family of elegant insects, in which the wings are divided 

 in such a manner as to suggest feathers. The hind wings are 

 generally trifid, sometimes quadrifid; the fore wings are gener- 

 ally bifid, sometimes trifid. The larvae are slow in movement, 

 clumsy in appearance, and live on the surface of leaves. They 



415 



