190 



ELEMENTARY ENTOMOLOGY 



silk-lined galleries, destroying the combs. They attack weak colo- 

 nies of bees, which they frequently destroy, and are one of the 

 worst enemies of the apiary. The moth has purplish-brown fore- 

 wings and brown 

 or faded yellow 

 hind-wings. 



The close-wings 

 (Crambinae] are 

 so called because 

 their wings are 

 wrapped closely 

 about them when 

 at rest. They are 

 also called snout- 

 moths. They are 

 the small brown- 

 ish or silvery- 

 white moths which 



A crambid moth (Crambus vulgivagelhis] 



a, larva ; b, overground, and c, underground, tube and cocoon ; 



d, e, f., moths with wings open and at rest ; g, egg much enlarged. 



(After Riley) 



fly up before us 

 in pastures and 



are scarcely distinguishable from the grass stems on which they 



alight. The larvae feed on the roots and stalks of grasses, living 



in little tubes constructed of bits of earth and vegetation fastened 



together with silk. Several spe- 

 cies are sometimes quite injurious 



to young corn planted on land 



where they have been abundant, 



the most common being known 



as the corn-root web-worm. 



Two other families of this group 



are known as plume-moths (Ptero- 



phoridae and Orneodidae\ as the 



wings are split into parts looking 



like a small fan of feathers. The 



larvae of one species occasionally 



webs up the terminals of young grape shoots, and another species 



is sometimes common on sweet-potato vines, but they are rarely 



of economic importance. 



FIG. 



\ 



298. A California plume- 

 moth. (Natural size) 



(After Kellogg) 



