458 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Super-family PYRALIDOIDEA. 



This contains a large number of small or very small moths varying in appear- 

 ance and agreeing chiefly in having the hind wings with three free inner veins, 

 and along the costa the marginal and sub-marginal united for a short distance 

 though separated at the base and tip. The familes into which the super-family 

 is divided are more easily known. 



The Pyraustidse have rather thinly scaled wings, the primaries pointed, the 

 secondaries never larger and sometimes very small. The colors are largely 

 yellowish or white, with deeper yellow markings and they may or not be con- 

 tinuous on both wings. Sometimes they are contrasting, white and black, 

 and many are red, brown and of other shades. The body is, as a rule, slender, 

 the head distinct and prominent, antennae slender, of good length, in the males 

 sometimes knotted or thickened. The larvae are nearly always green with pale 

 stripes and spots, or without any markings at all. The head and a shield on 

 the first thoracic segment, sometimes also the tubercles are shining black, brown 

 or yellow. They live in webs or tents and may be solitary as is the rule, or 

 social. 



The family Pyralididae contains much greater variations in appearance, 

 some resembling the preceding, but with broader wings and brighter colors, 

 others with ashen gray, rough vestiture and broader-shouldered primaries. 



The Phycitidse are ashen gray species, with narrower primaries and broader 

 secondaries, the latter without markings, the former banded and mottled with 

 blackish or brown. Usually they have a very smooth or even a glistening 

 appearance, and sometimes the contrasts in white and black are quite strong. 

 The larvae vary greatly in habit, but almost always live in a tube of silk, whether 

 they crumple an apple-leaf, live in a grain-bin or feed on scales. 



The Galleriidse or "bee moths " are curiously streaked moths, with a notch 

 at the end of the forewing in the typical species, the costa very decidedly 

 arched. The larva of the bee moth lives on wax in bee-hives, mining a gallery 

 lined with silk through the centre of the combs, out of sight of the bees. There 

 is not much chance for them, however, in modern hives, carefully looked after, 

 nor in strong healthy colonies. 



The Crambidse are slender moths with a distinct head, bearing long, project- 

 ing palpi, like some of the deltoids. The fore-wings are narrow, squarely cut 

 at the ends, the hind wings large and broad, closely folded when at rest under 

 the primaries, which are tightly wrapped around them. When at rest the little 

 moths look like slender cylinders, tapering from the tip of the pointed palpi to 

 the squarely cut-off end of the wings. These wings are generally streaked with 

 white, gray, yellow, gold and silver, some of the most brilliant combinations 

 being found on a very reduced scale. 



The larvae live in silken tubes on or below the surface of the ground, and 

 some of them are known as root web-worms. 



The Pterophoridae close the Pyralid series and are known as plume-moths 

 because the wings are split up into from two to five plumes or feathers, which 

 makes the species recognizable at a glance. The caterpillars are hairy, and at 

 first sight resemble miniature Arctiids ; but they spin up leaves, and of course 

 other differences of a radical character exist. 



