58 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Description. The small moth has been described by Doctor 

 Dietz as follows: 



Head russet-yellow. Palpi fuscous. Antennae blackish 

 brown, pecten of first joint russet. Thorax dark brown, with 

 golden green and bluish scales. Abdomen bronzed brown. Fore- 

 wing-s dark fuscous, overlaid with deep, bluish purple scales; 

 scattered over the disk and along the apical veins are some 

 bright green, hairlike scales ; both margins narrowly edged with 

 golden. Cilia fuscous, sprinkled with bluish scales; under side 

 fuscous brown, with purple reflection. Hind wings pale grayish 

 fuscous, with a feeble, purple lustre, margin narrowly edged 

 with pale metallic scales. Cilia pale fuscous ; under side similar 

 to upper. Under side of body dark fuscous, with some silver- 

 white scales. Legs grayish, tinged with dark fuscous, basal half 

 of tarsal joints paler. 



Exp. 1 1. 5-13.5 mm; 0.36^.54 inch. 



Doctor Fitch states that the tips of the wings are commonly 

 bent inward, giving them when closed the appearance of a little 

 pod enveloping the abdomen. 



The pupa is about five-thirty-seconds of an inch long, pale 

 yellowish, rather stout, the dorsum of the abdominal segments 

 with a transverse row basally of rather stout, dark brown spines; 

 cremaster represented by an indistinct short spine. 



The full-grown caterpillar is slender, flattened, cylindric, dull 

 white, the strongly depressed head and the third thoracic seg- 

 ments pale rusty brown. There is an interrupted, more or less 

 distinct, broad, blackish stripe down the back. 



The case (plate 17, figure 5) of the full-grown caterpillar is 

 oval, about three-eighths of an inch long and composed of two 

 pieces of a leaf fastened together at the edges and forming a 

 shelter. Within this there is another pair of narrowly oval 

 pieces of leaf, each with a length nearly a qu.arter of an inch. 

 These are fastened together in the same way, and within this 

 inner retreat the transformation to the pupa occurs. 



Life history. Pupation occurs in the fall, and the winter is 

 passed in the larval cases described above. These shelters 

 usually lie upon the ground in immense numbers or fall with 

 the affected leaves. The adults emerge and may be frequently 

 seen, according to Doctor Fitch, during the month of May, flying 

 by day or resting exposed upon the leaves in forests and along 

 their borders. 



