82 



CALIFORNIA STATE COMMISSION OF HORTICULTURE. 



' 



FIG. 73. Codling-moth (Carpocapsa pomonella), showing 

 variations. All natural size. 



all of its members leaf-rollers. The family includes a number of sub- 

 families, genera, and species. Many of them live in plants or burrow 



into fruits or the stems 

 of plants, and in this 

 family we find that 

 most destructive of all 

 ^^ f ruit pests, the codling- 



moth (Carpocapsa po- 

 monella). This one 

 pest causes a loss to 

 the fruit-growers of 

 America running into 

 tens of millions of 

 dollars annually. 

 While the other mem- 

 bers of this family 

 are hurtful to plants, none of them, nor all together, have attained the 

 unenviable prominence of the codling-moth. 



The family Yponomeutidse is of moderate size, containing about 

 sixty species in the United States. It is of little economic value. 



The family Geleehiidae consists of small moths, many if not most of 

 them being injurious to vegetation. One of these, an introduced spe- 

 cies, by the way, is the potato-moth, which is becoming a very severe 

 pest in this State. In this family, too, is found the destructive peach- 

 twig borer (Anarsia lineatella). This pest, like all our worst insects' 

 was probably introduced into California from Japan, of which country 

 it seems to be a native. 



The families Xylorietidse, (Eeophoridse, Blastobasidse and Elaehistidse 

 afe generally small families of small insects. Their different peculiar- 

 ities have caused them to be assigned to separate families, but, except to 

 the systematic entomologist, they are of little interest. 



In the family Tineidse, however, we have some members which are 

 of direct interest to us. This is a very large family, generally of small 

 moths, although some of them attain moderate size. These insects 

 have narrow wings bordered 'with a fringe, and some of them, although 

 -exceedingly small, are very beautiful. Some of the members of this 

 family are so minute that they attain their full growth and undergo 

 their metamorphosis within the tissue of the leaves in which they live. 

 Some of them, when they appear in great numbers, are very destructive. 

 When it is considered that the leaves of trees are often no thicker than 

 a sheet of paper, and that they consist of an upper and a lower surface, 



