FAMILY PSYCHIDÆ "The habits of insects are very mines of interesting knowledge, and it is impossible carefully to watch the proceedings of any insect, however insignificant, without feeling that no writer of fiction ever invented a drama of such absorbing interest as is acted daily before our eyes, though to indifferent spectators." J. G. WOOD. A family of small or medium-sized moths, the larvæ of which feed in a case composed of silk covered with bits of leaves, grass, twigs, or other vegetable matter, which are often arranged in a very curious manner. From this fact has arisen the custom of calling the caterpillars "basket-worms." In certain species found in Asia and Africa, these "baskets," or "cases," are spiral in form, and so closely resemble the shells of snails that they were, in fact, originally sent to the British Museum as shells by the first person who collected them. The pupa is formed within the larva-case. The males are winged, but the females are without wings. The female in almost all of the genera is possessed of a very lowly organization, being maggot-like, and in truth being little more than an ovary. She is known to deposit her eggs in the larval skin which lines the sack in which she was developed. Copulation takes place through the insertion of the abdomen of the winged male into the sack where the female is concealed. Parthenogenesis is ascertained to occur in one at least of the genera. The moths are obscurely colored. The wings of the males have numerous scales upon them, but they are in many species so loosely attached that they are lost in the first few moments of flight. In consequence the male insects appear to have diaphanous wings. Eight genera, including the genus Solenobia, which has by most authors heretofore been reckoned among the Tineida, are attributed by Dyar to this family as occurring within our territory. Much remains to be learned both as to the structure and the lifehistory of these interesting, but obscure, moths. Genus OIKETICUS Guilding The genus is found in the hotter parts of America, the typical species having originally been found in Central America. It is also represented in southern Asia and in Australia. Three species occur in the United States-one in southern California, another in New Mexico, and a third in Florida. The latter species was named abboti by Grote, and the male is delineated in Fig. 208. Oiketicus abboti, 6. 1. The wings are pale smoky brown, with darker maculation at the end of the cell and just beyond in the primaries. Genus THYRIDOPTERYX Stephens FIG. 208. (1) Thyridopteryx ephemeræformis Haworth, Plate XLI, Fig. 12, 3. Syn. coniferarum Packard. The common "Bag-worm," as it is usually called, occurs throughout the Appalachian subregion, from the Atlantic to the FIG. 209.-Thyridopteryx ephemeraformis. (Bag-worm.) a, larva; b, male pupa; c, female pupa; d, male moth; e, female chrysalis in cocoon, showing eggs in situ; f, full-grown larva; g, young larvæ with small cones of silk over them. (After Riley.) borders of the Great Plains. It is a very promiscuous feeder, attacking trees and shrubs of many genera, but, so far as is known, abstaining from the Gramineæ. It evinces special fondness for the conifers, and above all for the red cedar and arborvitæ. It has proved very injurious to shade-trees in some of our cities, and its ravages in St. Louis and Washington have been made the subject of repeated comment in the literature of economic entomology. A very full and interesting account of the habits of this peculiar insect was published by the late Professo C. V. Riley in the "First Annual Report of the State Entomologist of Missouri," to which the reader will do well to refer. The "bag," or "basket," of the male insect is smaller than that of the female. The males escape from the lower end of the case in the winged form, and having copulated with the females, which remain in their cases and are apterous and sluggish, die. The female deposits her eggs, which are soft and yellow, in the sack where she has her home, and ends her existence by leaving what little of her body remains after the ova have been extruded, as a sort of loose plug of desiccated tissue at the lower end of the sack. The eggs remain in the case till the following spring, when they hatch. The young larvæ emerge, and placing themselves upon the leaves, where they walk about on their fore feet, with their anal extremities held up perpendicularly, proceed to construct about themselves little cones of vegetable matter mixed with fine silk. After a while they cease to hold these cones erect, and seizing the leaves and branches with their feet, allow the bag to assume a pendant position. They moult within their cases four times before reaching maturity and pupating. The remedy for these insects is to simply collect the cases which may be found in the fall and winter hanging from the branches, and burn them. In one of the parks in St. Louis several years ago, the superintendent caused the cases to be collected, and they were destroyed by the bushel, with great benefit to the trees the next summer. Genus EURYCYTTARUS Hampson E. This is a small genus of very small case-bearing moths, two species of which are known to occur in the United States. carbonaria is found in Texas. The other species, which we figure, is a native of the Appalachian subregion. (1) Eurycyttarus confederata Grote & Robinson, Plate I, Fig. 16, larval case; Plate XLI, Fig. 8, 3. The insects feed upon grasses and herbaceous plants in the larval state. When ready to pupate they attach their cases to the under side of rails, the stringers of fences, and fallen branches of trees. The insect is very common in western Pennsylvania and in the city of Pittsburgh. FAR OUT AT SEA "Far out at sea-the sun was high, While veered the wind and flapped the sail; We saw a snow-white butterfly Far out at sea. The little wanderer, who had lost His way, of danger nothing knew; Then fluttered o'er the waters blue Above, there gleamed the boundless sky; Beneath, the boundless ocean sheen; Between them danced the butterfly, The spirit-life of this vast scene, The tiny soul that soared away, Seeking the clouds on fragile wings, Lured by the brighter, purer ray Which hope's ecstatic morning brings- Away he sped, with shimmering glee, He dies, unlike his mates, I ween Perhaps not sooner or worse crossed; A larger life and hope, though lost R. H. HORNE. - Genius. FAMILY COCHLIDIIDÆ "The rearing of larvæ . . . when joined with the entomological collection, adds immense interest to Saturday afternoon rambles, and forms an admirable introduction to the study of physiology." HERBERT SPENCER, in Education. This family, which has generally been known as the Limacodida, is described as follows by Hampson, "The Moths of India," Vol. I, p. 371: "Fore wing with two internal veins; vein 1b forked at the base. Hind wing with vein 8 arising free, then bent down and usually anastomosing shortly with 7 near the base of the cells; three internal veins. Larva limaciform, and either bearing series of spinous stinging tubercles, or smooth and segmented, or unsegmented with very thick transparent cuticle; the head, legs, and claspers small and often retractile. Cocoon hard and compact; round or oval in shape, with a lid for the escape of the imago prepared by the larva." These curious insects, the larvæ of which are commonly known as "slug-caterpillars," are better represented in the tropics of both hemispheres than in the more temperate regions. Nevertheless our fauna contains quite a large number of genera and species. Of the majority of these we give illustrations. Genus SIBINE Herrich-Schæffer (1) Sibine stimulea Clemens, Plate I, Fig. 6, larva; Plate XLVII, Fig. 9, . (The Saddle-back.) Syn. ephippiatus Harris. The green caterpillars with their little brown saddle on the back are familiar to every Southern boy who has wandered in the corn-fields, and many a lad can recall the first time he came in contact with the stinging bristles as he happened to brush against the beastie. Nettles are not to be compared in stinging power to the armament of this beautifully colored larva. |