98 



THE BUEROAVING WEB WORM. 



{Pseudanaphora arcanella, Clem.) 

 Order Lepidoptera. Family Tineid^. 



(Plate VI., figs. 2, 3, 5.) 



In recently plowed sod I found March 28, 1886, a peculiar cater- 

 pillar about an inch long, of a soft, indefinite, velvety gray color, 

 darkening forward, conspicuously marked with several large, 

 irregular, shining white areas in the thoracic region, the head and 

 cervical shield Being black. Single examples were occasionally 

 collected afterwards, either free or in small masses of herbage 

 webbed together and connected with a tubular burrow in the 

 ground. Several attempts made in 1886 and 1887 to breed this 

 species failed, and the name remained unknown to us until suc- 

 cessful experiments in 1888 yielded the thick-bodied purplish 

 brown moth above mentioned. As far as our own observations 

 go, this web worm, although occurring frequently among the cereal 

 crops, would scarcely deserve attention as an agricultural insect; 

 but the following letter, written May 27, 1887, by Mr. J. M. 

 Leighton, of Manchester, Scott county, Illinois, — accompanied as 

 it was by several of the web worms, — shows the species to be 

 capable of considerable injury to corn: 



"I send you by to-day's mail an assortment of grubs which are 

 doing a great deal of mischief in this locality. They are entirely 

 different from those we had some years ago, but fully as destruc- 

 tive to corn; so far, however, they have not damaged the grass. 

 Their ravages are confined entirely to sod land, and they only 

 work on the dry portions of that, confining themselves to the 

 highest part of the field. They were first noticed about ten days 

 ago, when the corn was twelve to eighteen inches high and grow- 

 ing rapidly, and in that time they have entirely destroyed a great 

 deal of it. The question that the farmers feel most interested in 

 is. How long will they continue to work?" 



The literature of this species is purely technical, no observa- 

 tions on it, of economic interest, having been reported. 



r iThe life history of a single related species, Anaphora agvoti- 

 ixmnclla., having similar burrowing habits, was given by Miss 

 Murtfeldt in 187f);* but otherwise I am not aware of any biologic- 

 al observations on any of our American species. 



