INSECTS INJURIOUS TO CLOTHES 



219 



at the same time, shows what a long standing pest it is. 

 Nothing is known of its life history. 



There is another species of fish-moth present in this 

 country, but not so well known to housekeepers. It was 

 described by Packard in 1873 in a paper on the Thysanura of 

 Essex County, Massachusetts. He called it Lepisma domes- 

 tica and said it was common in houses of Salem about hearths 

 and fireplaces, in warm and dry 

 situations, eating sugar, and 

 other foods. He described it as 

 having a broad body, pearly 

 white, with a dense coat of 

 scales and mottled with dark 

 spots (Fig. 65). The same 

 species, evidently, exists in Eng- 

 land and it has since been named 

 Thermobia furnorum. Both of 

 these names refer to its heat- 

 loving propensities. It seems 

 to be abundant in bakeshops 

 about the ovens where the heat 

 would appear too great for any 

 insect to withstand. It also 

 occurs about fireplaces and ranges in dwellings and runs 

 over hot bricks and metal with apparent impunity. 

 In England, on account of its habits, it is called the 

 "firebrat." 



A Dutch entomologist, Oudemans, who has given con- 

 siderable attention to the group of insects to which the 

 fish-moths belong, says that he finds this heat-loving 

 species in all bakeshops in Amsterdam that he has investi- 

 gated and adds, that it is well known to the bakers. 



Fig. 



65. — The domestic fish- 

 moth. (X 1|). 



