204 



THE AMERICAN 



I once left the cover to the box uot quite 

 secure, and one of them made its escape, com- 

 pletely stripped of its ornaments; it had left all 

 in the box behind, in squeezing through the 

 aperture. I no sooner returned it to the box 

 than it began to take the ornaments fi'om its 

 comrades to re-adorn itself, rather than to pick 

 up its own, a process which those that were 

 being stolen from did not seem at all to relish. 



After they ceased eating and were ready to 

 become pupie, they spun loose cocoons, which 

 they fastened to the top and sides of the box, 

 taking their ornaments to decorate their cocoons, 

 which, in consequence, wore a very rough, un- 

 even appearance. In a few days, a little pea- 

 green molh issued from these rough cocoons — 

 the most delicate, beautiful little creature 

 imaginable. 



I now submitted it to the late Mr. Walsh, and 

 received this reply: "Your Raspberry Moth is 

 Aplodes rubivora of the Junior Editor, first de- 

 scribed in his Missouri Report." 



Down went all my air-castles of being im- 

 mortalized in science with this delicate little 

 creature ! 



I now had the Verbena Moth (Fig. 126, 6) to 

 build my hopes [Fig. 1-8] 



upon. Altl.OLigh 

 not so interesting 

 as the other, still 

 itwas very prettj; 

 and as my interest 

 in the Raspberry 

 Moth had greatly 

 subsided, since I 

 found that it 

 a name, and more 

 thana "local habi- 

 tation," so my 

 regard for the 

 Verbena Moth as 

 greatly increased, 

 notwithstanding 

 it was such a ter- 

 rible nuisance in 

 the larva state. It 

 seemed determin- 

 ed not to let us 

 have a perfects 

 verbena blossom, aiia'iirown. 

 Quite early in the season I first noticed its work. 

 The larvas were so small, and so near the color 

 of the calyx of the flower, that it was almost im- 

 possible to catch the perpetrator until the mis- 

 chief was done. They were hid away among 

 the clusters of buds, and ate through the lower 

 part of the calyx, completely destroying the 



flowers. At first they seemed to be mostly con- 

 fined to the white and light-colored varieties of 

 verbena, but later in the season they attacked 

 all colors indiscriminately. 



I also noticed that the pupse were affected by 

 lamp-light, a peculiarity that I had never ob- 

 served in any other insect. One evening I 

 brought several clusters of verbena buds, that 

 were badly mutilated by these little pests, to the 

 light of a lamp, which affected the pupaB so much 

 that they worked and wriggled themselves en- 

 tirely out of their cocoons ; and I waited in vain 

 to see them give forth the perfect insect, which, 

 however, did not issue until two or three days 

 after this. 



After satisfying myself that this insect was 

 not described in any work on the Lepidoptera, 

 I sent it to Mr. Walsh, and he inclined to believe 

 that it was a new and undescribed species ; but 

 added, he-would let me know in due time. So 

 it was left until after the death of Mr. Walsh, 

 when Mr. Riley came across some of the moths 

 I had sent to Mr. Walsh, and wrote: "Your 

 Verbena Moth is my Penthina FuUerea. You 

 will find it figured and described in Tilton's 

 Journal of HorticiMure for October, 1868. My 

 hopes blighted again! 



With a great feeling of disappointment I went 

 to hunting among Tilton's old journals until I 

 found the designated number; when, Lol here 

 it was figured as natural as life, with a full 

 description of it in all its stages. From the 

 account hei-e given it would seem to like a greater 

 variety of diet than Mr. Riley had supposed, 

 although he had given it considerable latitude; 

 but the Verbena is a long way from the Ii-is 

 and Lily families. 



As what I found in Tilton's Journal bears 

 upon the name of this moth, and upon its food- 

 plant as noticed by Mr. Fuller, and as it is also 

 the first published account of this insect, I hope 

 Mr. Riley will allow me to quote, in part, his 

 letter to Mr. Fuller : 



"The Tigridia-seed larvae which you sent me 

 last December have proved, as I suspected they 

 might, to be an entirely new species. Ever 

 since the lOLh of March, I have been breeding 

 from them a pretty little moth, belonging to the 

 genas Penthina, and inclose, in accordance with 

 your request, a brief description of the worm, 

 its chrysalis and moth, together with some 

 drawings, which will be of more value to yon. 



"The genus Penthina belongs to a sub-family 

 of the Tortricidw (a large group, whose larvae 

 live for the most part iu seeds, buds, or between 

 leaves, which they fasten with their silken 

 threads) ; and it is characterized by the antenna! 



