STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
817 
ANGOUMOIS MOTH. APPEARANCE OF THE MOTH IN MOTION AND IN REPOSE. 
and put them on the stretch, repeatedly, till they at length are 
wholly free. Intervals of repose and periods of exertion alter¬ 
nately occur during the whole of this process. And by its strug¬ 
gles many of the scales with which it is clothed are rubbed off 
and remain adhering to the surrounding kernels of grain. 
The moth is a good pedestrian, walking with vivacity over the 
surface of the grain. It, however, usually moves with a skip, and 
commonly spreading its wings as it makes a leap, it flies a short 
distance, a foot or a yard it may be, alighting in the most shaded 
nook or corner within its reach. But, if it so desires, it readily 
makes a continuous flight from one side to the other of a spacious 
room, alighting upon the middle of the wall. One of my speci¬ 
mens chanced to alight in a tea cup of fine dry sand, in which I 
was keeping the larva of a lion-ant. This larva having recently 
been well fed, had now demolished its funnel-shaped burrow, and, 
as is its custom at such times, had exercised itself in plowing 
the surface of the sand into little irregular furrows. The loose 
sand afforded the moth no foothold sufficiently firm to enable it 
to make a leap and take wing, nor could it cling to the smooth 
sides of the cup sufficiently well to crawl up them to make its 
escape — although when unembarrassed and moving slowly and 
deliberately it is able to ascend the sides of glass vessels. It 
therefore walked.hurriedly about, on the surface of the sand, 
sometimes passing directly over the. partially exposed head of 
the lion-ant. But though the latter, at such times, instinctively 
essayed to grasp it in its formidable forceps, the steps of the 
moth were so agile that it readily glided out of the jaws of its 
wily neighbor. 
When at rest, the wings are closed over the back, forming a 
rounded roof, nearly horizontal above and descending upon each 
side. Towards the apex of the closed wings the fringe of the 
right fore wing is protruded and overlaps the inner edge of the 
left wing, the same as in others of these small moths. The op¬ 
posite sides ol the insect, when its wings are thus closed, are 
parallel, and abruptly narrowed at the shoulders, with the head 
jutting out like a narrow protuberance in front. The fore legs, 
ln re P 08e > are stretched forward from the outer part of each 
shoulder, parallel with each other and usually in a line with the 
sides of the body, reaching forward thrice the length of the 
ead. 1 he antennas are turned backwards, above the fore legs 
[Ac. Trans.] 52 
