42 



I noticed that the cellar was simply swarming with E. lactella 

 and on examining the wine bottles, I found that the corks of many 

 of them had been tunnelled by larvae and much of the wine spoiled. 

 A closer inspection showed that in every case where the cork had 

 been attacked, a quantity of sawdust was attached to it by 

 apparently the remains of a silken gallery constructed round the 

 small exposed part of the cork, and from which the boring had 

 emanated, which exactly corresponded with this creature's method 

 of feeding ; moreover, although a careful search was made, no 

 sign of any weevils was found. I think, therefore, that I am justified 

 in attributing the damage to the ravages of K. lactella. It would 

 have been an interesting experiment to have left things just as they 

 were, to see if other wine corks were attacked in the same way, and 

 thus to have made absolutely sure of the culprit, but the loss had been 

 severe and so the cellar was cleaned out and all other bottle corks 

 dipped in sealing-wax, thus preventing any possibility of further 

 attack. 



Borhkausenia {Oeeopltora) psendospretella, Stainton, "The Brown 

 House-Moth" (Durrant), is a somewhat larger and much more 

 robust species, measuring little less than an inch across the expanded 

 fore-wings, which are mottled grey-brown in colour with a couple of 

 distinct black spots near the middle of each of them. It is of much 

 more secretive habits than the last mentioned species, seldom 

 sitting fully exposed when at rest but hiding in crevices, and if 

 disturbed, running quickly to cover. The larva constructs a long, 

 tough silken tube in which it lives, and disguises it by attaching any 

 bits of the material in which it is feeding or other rubbish to it. It 

 is a very general feeder, vegetable and animal food being apparently 

 equally acceptable to it. It is an even greater terror to the 

 entomologist than E. lactella, for not only will it devour the pupae 

 in his breeding cages with avidity, but it will even destroy the 

 specimens in his cabinets, and so carefully covers up its depredations, 

 that a specimen which it has attacked may look quite natural until 

 touched, when it will at once fall to pieces, the whole of the inside 

 having been eaten, and nothing but a shell and the wings being left. 

 It has been bred from dried peas, rice, skins, dried plants, etc. It 

 has been known to cause much damage to heather sweeping-brooms 

 in store, and I reared it from the same lot of hare's hair as 

 T. pallescentella already referred to. 



Its latest depredation that I have discovered was feeding on the 

 leather of a book cover ; the larva had constructed its tube inside 

 the lower part of the back of the book and gnawn the lower edge of 

 the cover. By the irony of fate the book attacked was Moses Harris's 

 " Exposition of English Insects." Indeed, nothing seems to come 

 amiss to it and on account of its methods of feeding, the damage 

 caused is often much greater than the amount actually consumed 



