seems to defy attempts to eradicate it. Each female lays from six to seven hundred eggs, and the process of generation seems, where buildings are warm, to go on continuously. Moving and airing the wheat does no good, as the insect seems to multiply in the pipes in which flour is transported in a mill from one place to another by air-pressure. Much damage is done by the habit which the larvæ possess of gnawing the fine gauze of the screens in a flourmill.

When the insect has once established itself in an elevator or mill, the only remedy appears to be to shut down, and thoroughly clean the place from top to bottom, and keep shut down and go on cleaning until not a nook or cranny is known to harbor the larvæ, cocoons, or moths. The accom

panying illustrations,

FIG. 233.-a, Enlarged view of cocoon of Flourmoth from below, showing pupa through thin silk which was attached to a beam. b, Cocoon viewed from above, with meal clinging to it. (After Riley, "Insect Life," Vol. II, p. 167.)

which are taken from the pages of "Insect Life," Vol. II, will enable the student to recognize this creature in its various stages of development.

Thus far it has not become universally distributed throughout the country, but it has appeared in alarming numbers in some parts of Canada and New England. In England, Germany, and Belgium its attacks have been the subject of frequent comment. It shares an unenviable reputation with another species of the same genus, which we shall presently speak of, and with a species of Plodia, of which we shall also have something to say.

"Bee to the blossom, moth to the flame;

Each to his passion; what's in a name?"

HELEN HUNT JACKSON.- Vanity of Vanities.

(2) Ephestia cautella Walker. (The Dried-currant Moth.) Syn. cahiritella Zeller; pasulella Barrett; desuetella Walker.

This insect, which in many respects closely resembles the preceding species, like it is destructive to stored food-products. It is known to feed upon Zante currants, raisins, cacao-beans, or chocolatenuts, on flax-seed, flax-meal, and figs. It is regarded as probable that upon occasion it may develop a tendency to feed upon almost any substance which, containing nutriment, accords in its general character with the commodities which have been named. It is especially likely to attack dried fruits E. cautella. of any kind in which there is sugar or oil. That the Larva, twice insect has been introduced from abroad into our

FIG. 234.

size of life.

(After Chit- fauna is beyond reasonable doubt. Its ravages on tenden," Bull. the other side of the Atlantic have been described by U. S. Dept. Agric.," New writers long ago, while its appearance in this country seems to date from about the time of the Atlanta Cotton Exposition.

Ser., No. 8,

p. 8.)

Just as most of the common weeds in our fields are of European origin, having been brought over in the seeds which were originally imported,

or at a later time in the hay and straw which are used to stuff crates and packing-boxes, so many of the destructive insects, which have greatly multiplied in America, are foreign in their origin. It is not without reason that the government maintains

a set of officers, whose function it is to inspect vegetable importations for the purpose of quarantining those which appear to be likely to introduce insect pests. Had the custom of quarantining plants been instituted earlier, our farmers would to-day be happier.

FIG. 235.-E. cautella. a, moth; b, venation of wings; d, eggs. All figures enlarged. (After Chittenden, "Bull. U. S. Dept. Agric.,' "New Ser., No. 8, p. 8.)

Genus PLODIA Guenée

(1) Plodia interpunctella Hübner. (The Indian-meal Moth.) Syn. zea Fitch.

The larva of this moth has a propensity to feed upon almost anything edible which comes in its way. It feeds upon Indian meal with particular avid

C

d

e

a, moth; b,

ity, but does not disdain. grain of any kind, whole or ground. It breeds in all sorts of dried fruits and vegetables. It eats English walnuts, is said to invade beehives, and is known at times to damage herbariums and to attack collections of dried insects. There is nothing which seems to come amiss to its appetite, and it is, when established in a house or store-room, a veritable nuiThere are, according to the temperature of the building which it inhabits, from four to seven generations a year, and the reader of these lines will do well to remember that if the thing has establis itself under his roof it will require industry, patience, and great regard to cleanliness and order to get rid of it.

sance.

FIG. 236.-P. interpunctella. pupa; c, larva; d, front view of head of larva; e, lateral view of segment of larva. All figures enlarged. (After Chittenden, "Bull. U. S. Dept. Agric.," New Ser., No. 4, p. 119.)

The Plume-moths, as they are called, constitute a comparatively small family of elegant insects, in which the wings are divided in such a manner as to suggest feathers. The hind wings are generally trifid, sometimes quadrifid; the fore wings are generally bifid, sometimes trifid. The larvæ are slow in movement, clumsy in appearance, and live on the surface of leaves. They

are generally hairy. The pupæ are very remarkable, being soft and hairy like the caterpillars, and attached in pendant position by the cremaster, very much as the chrysalids of some butterflies, though a few have rudimentary cocoons in the form of strands of silk thrown about them. There are six genera and about sixty species of Plume-moths known to occur in the United States. We can take space to represent only one of these species. Genus OXYPTILUS Zeller

(1) Oxyptilus periscelidactylus Fitch. Plume.)

(The Grape-vine

An exceedingly readable and very interesting account of the habits of this insect, which is universally distributed over the

whole Appalachian subregion, is given by the late Professor Riley in the "Fourth Missouri Report." The moths may generally be found in vineyards and about grape-vines, when they are beginning to put out their leaves. The eggs are laid on the branches before they begin to blossom, and about the time the third bunch of grapes on a given shoot is beginning to mature, it will be found that the terminal leaves have been drawn together with a few strands of silk, and in the tangle thus prepared, under cover from heat and rain, will be found the curious little caterpillars of the Plumemoth. The accompanying cut, taken from the paper of Professor Riley to which allusion has been made, will serve to tell the story better than can be done in brief compass by words. The damage done by the insects is not usually very great, and it is an easy matter for the vine-grower, when he discovers the leaves drawn together in the way pointed out, to pluck off the end of the shoot and destroy the insects.

FIG. 237.-The Grape-vine Plume. a, larvæ; b, pupa; c, enlarged view of process on back of pupa; d, moth; e, lateral view of segment of larva. (After Riley.)

"

FAMILY ORNEODIDÆ

Very close and diligent looking at living creatures, even through the best microscope, will leave room for new and contradictory discoveries."

GEORGE ELIOT.

This is a very small family of moths, represented in our fauna by but a single genus and species. The moth has both the fore and the hind wings divided into six plumes, as is the case in all the insects of the family.

Genus ORNEODES Latreille

(1) Orneodes hexadactyla Linnæus. Moth.)

(The Six-plume

W.J.H

The moth, which measures half an inch in expanse of wings, is found in Europe and in the cooler portions of North America, exclusive of the arctic regions. It has been reported to occur as far south as Missouri, but is more commonly found in New England, New York, Canada, Manitoba, and the Northwestern States on the Pacific coast. It is nowhere apparently a common insect, or else is overlooked by collectors on account of its small size.

FIG. 238.-O. hexadactyla. .

FAMILY TORTRICIDÆ

"Die Kritik nimmt oft dem Baume
Raupen und Blüthen mit einander."
JEAN PAUL RICHTER.

The Tortricidae constitute a very large assemblage of genera and species. Because of the habit of the larvæ of many species of rolling up the leaves of the plants on which they feed, these insects have been often called "Leaf-rollers." Many of the larvæ live in the inside of the stems of plants, or burrow in fruits, and the famous "jumping-beans" of New Mexico and Arizona are simply the seeds of a species of Croton or Sebastiania in