TINEID^. 343 



instructions are necessary. When the moth is taken in the 

 net, it can be blown by the breath into the bottom. "Then 

 by elevating the hand through the ring, or on a level with it, a 

 common cupping glass of about two inches in diameter, or a 

 Avine glass carried in the pocket, is placed on top of the left 

 hand over the constricted portion, the grasp relaxed, and the 

 insect permitted to escape through the opening into its interior. 

 The glass is then closed below by the left hand on the outside 

 of the net, and may be transferred to the top of the collecting 

 box, when it can be quieted by chloroform" (Clemens) ; or the 

 moths may be collected in pill boxes, and then carried home 

 and opened into a larger box filled with fumes of ether or ben- 

 zine or cyanide of potassium. In pinching any moths on the 

 thorax, as is sometimes done, the form of that region is inva- 

 riably distorted, and many of the scales removed. In search- 

 ing for "Micros" we must look carefully on the lee side of 

 trees, fences, hedges, and undulations in the ground, for 

 they avoid the wind. Indeed, we can take advantage of 

 this habit of many Micros, and by blowing vigorously on the 

 trunks of trees start the moth off into the net so placed as to 

 intercept it. This method is most i^roductive, C. G. Barrett 

 states, in the "Entomologist's Monthly Magazine," while a 

 steady wind is blowing. 



In seeking for the larvae we must remember that most of 

 them are leaf miners, and their burrows are detected by the 

 waved brown withered lines on the surface of leaves^ and their 

 '■'■frass" or excrement, thrown out at one end. Some are found 

 between united leaves, of which the upper is crumpled. Others 

 construct portable cases which they draw about the trunks of 

 trees, fences, etc. Others burrow in. the stems of grass, or in 

 fungi, toadstools, and in the pith of currant or raspberry bushes. 

 Most are solitary, a few gregarious. A bush stripped of its 

 leaves and covered with webs, if not done by Clisiocampa (the 

 American Tent Caterpillar), will witness the work of a Tineid. 

 Buds of unfolded herbs suffer from their attacks, such as the 

 heads of composite flowers which are drawn together and con- 

 sumed by the larvae. 



After some practice in rearing larvae it will be found easier 

 and more profitable to search for the leaf miners, and rear the 



