INSECTS INJURIOUS TO CLOTHES 



215 



habit and thereupon dubbed it a fish-moth. It is quite 

 common to call any insect found injuring household effects 

 a moth, even though it is far removed from the group of 

 insects containing the moths and butterflies. The glis- 

 tening body of the fish-moth, its quick, gliding movements, 

 and its ability to appear and as quickly and mysteriously 

 disappear have resulted in its having received a number of 

 names in different localities. It is variously 

 known as the silver-fish, silver-witch, sugar- 

 louse, sugar-fish, wood-fish, and bristle-tail. 

 Food and injuries of the fish-moth. — It 

 is still a question whether this insect lives 

 mostly upon vegetable or animal products, 

 or, at a pinch, upon both. It is commonly 

 said that the fish-moth lives upon vegetable 

 matter, mainly upon starch and sugar. In 

 proof of this, the injuries to laundered 

 clothes, bindings of books, wall paper, and 

 similar materials are cited. It has been 

 said that the insect attacks these objects 

 to get at the starch or paste in them. Not 

 long ago we received a letter from a care- 

 ful housekeeper, accompanied by several 

 specimens of this insect, saying that they were seriously 

 injuring the curtains hung at the windows of a room 

 very little used. These curtains had supposedly been 

 starched, although the letter was not specific on this 

 point. At any rate, something in the curtains other 

 than the fiber, probably the starchy material, had proved 

 attractive as a source of food to the fish-moths and the in- 

 juries followed. In this connection, M. de Rossi says that 

 muslin curtains are sometimes perforated by fish-moths. 



Fig. 64. — The 

 fish- moth. 

 (X 2.) 



