1 86 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK 



when it has occasion to enlarge its case a red gusset 

 is let into the blue material, and the contrast of 

 colour renders the supposed protective covering 

 rather conspicuous. Experimentally in close con- 

 finement the little tailor has been made to weave 

 a coat of many colours by placing it successively 

 on cloth of different hues. 



Before becoming a chrysalis, the caterpillar either 

 leaves the garment upon which it has fed and 

 retires into an obscure corner, or it remains where 

 it is, and secures itself from falling or being 

 brushed off by spinning mooring threads between 

 each end of the case and the garment. The little 

 moth that finally results from this caterpillar has 

 the fore wings yellowish brown with a dark-brown 

 spot near the middle of each. 



Another species of these case-makers allied to 

 the Clothes Moth is Tinea vastella, that feeds on 

 the horns of living antelopes in Africa and India. 

 It makes cylindrical cases of a felt-like material 

 composed of the comminuted fibres of horn; and 

 as those of full size are three inches long with a 

 breadth of about one-fifth of an inch, and stand 

 out at right angles from the horn, they present a 

 remarkable appearance, which might lead a hunter 

 to suppose he had come across a new species of 

 antelope. 



Many minute moths with a similar taste for 

 tailoring feed upon vegetable matter — which the 

 Clothes Moth despises. Good examples of these 

 may be found in the large genus Coleophora, of 



