Home › Volumes › Moths › Pterophoridae Family
Grape-vine Plume
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 Plume-moth. 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.