THE BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 



189 



color, with golden bands and fringes, and expands four fifths of 

 an inch. The meal snout-moth (Pyralis farinalis] also sometimes 

 feeds on clover hay, though it is more commonly a pest of meal and 

 flour, in which it spins silken tubes wherever it feeds. A thorough 



FIG. 295. The Indian-meal moth (Plodia interpunctella). (Enlarged) 



, moth ; <$, pupa ; c, /, caterpillar ; d, head ; e, first abdominal segment of same. (After 

 Chittenden, United States Department of Agriculture) 



cleaning out of barns and grain rooms will usually prevent trouble 

 from both of these pests. 



The subfamily Phycitinae includes another pair of pests of grain 

 products, the Indian-meal moth (Plodia interpunctelld), whose 

 white larvae spin 

 silken tubes in 

 meal, dried fruits, 

 and other stores 

 which they infest, 

 and the Mediter- 

 ranean flour-moth, 

 which has similar 

 habits and has be- 



FIG. 296. The Mediteranean flour-moth (Ephestia 



come a very serious 



pest of flour mills, 



clogging up the 



machinery with its 



strong silken webs and necessitating frequent fumigation. The only 



common representative of another family is the bee-moth, whose 



larvae feed upon the wax of honeycombs, in which they make 



Mediteranean 

 kuehnielld] 



a, b, moth ; c, larva ; d, pupa (enlarged) ; e, abdominal segment 



of larva (more enlarged). (After Chittenden, United States 



Department of Agriculture) 



