72 



CALIFORNIA STATE COMMISSION OF HORTICULTURE. 



way than are those classed as butterflies. Among the moths we find 

 some of our most important insects from an economic standpoint; 

 some few are also beneficial, as predaceous upon other pests; but by far 

 the greater part of them are injurious to a greater or less degree, 

 and some of them are among the most destructive, costly, and serious 

 of all our insect enemies. The codling-moth, together with its 

 destructive work, is well known to orchardists, and the bee-moth is a 

 terror to the apiarist, methods to circumvent its destructive work rack- 

 ing the brains of our beemen. The Mediterranean flour-moth has, on 

 many occasions, put large and costly flouring-mills out of business by 

 so obstructing the machinery with its webs that it could not be oper- 

 ated. The clothes-moth and its destructive work are well known to 

 every housekeeper, and so the list might be almost indefinitely extended. 



As stated before, as most of these insects are nocturnal they are not 

 so well known as the butterflies, which fly only in the light, but they 

 are by far the more numerous, covering a wider range of families and 

 species, and working their destructive operations in more diverse ways 

 than the other members of the order. 



The moths with which we are acquainted in the United States are 

 divided into forty-three families, as follows: 



1. SphingidaB. 



2. Saturniidse. 



3. Ceratocampid^e. 



4. Syntomidse. 



5. Lithosiidse. 



6. ArctiidaB. 



7. AgaristidaB. 



8. NoctuidaB. 



9. Nycteolidse. 



10. PericopidaB. 



11. Dioptidse. 



12. Notodontidse. 



13. ThyatiridaB. 



14. Liparidse. 



15. LasiocampidaB. 



16. BombycidaB. 



17. Platypterygida3. 



18. GeometridaB. 



19. EpiplemidaB. 



20. Nolidse. 



21. LacosomidaB. 



22. PsyehidaB. 



23. Cochlid'iidaB. 



24. MegalopygidaB. 



25. DalceridaB. 



26. EpipyropidaB. 



27. ZygaBnidaB. 



28. ThyrididaB. 



29. CossidaB. 



30. JEgeriidae. 



31. PyralidaB. 



32. PterophoridaB. 



33. OrneodidaB. 



34. TortricidaB. 



35. YponomeutidaB. 



36. GelechiidaB. 



37. XylorictidaB. 



38. (EcophoridaB. 



39. Blastobasidas. 



40. ElachistidaB. 



41. TineidaB. 



42. HepialidaB. 



43. MicropterygidaB. 



Family Sphingidse (Hawk-moths). These moths fly at twilight, and 

 are very noticeable because of their habit of hovering over flowers, 

 from which they extract nectar by means of their extraordinary tongue, 

 which is sometimes several times the length of the insect. Its larva is 

 the large green worm often found on tomatoes, grapes, tobacco, etc. 

 The caterpillars are peculiar in the possession of a sharp, curved 

 horn on the last segment of the body, or in its place a hard eye-like 

 spot. When at rest, some of them have the habit of elevating the 



