232 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



posed to the air than the furniture of our apartments. 

 These do not construct a moveable habitation like the 

 common species, but, eating their way in the thickness 

 of the cloth, weave themselves silken galleries in which 

 they reside, and which they render close and warm by 

 covering them with some of the eroded wool \ T.pel- 

 lionella is a most destructive insect, and ladies have 

 often to deplore the ravages which it commits in their 

 valuable furs, whether made up into muffs or tippets — 

 it pays no more respect to the regal ermine than to the 

 woollen habiliments of the poor; its proper food, in- 

 deed, being hair, though it devours both wool and fur. 

 This species, if hard pressed by hunger, will even eat 

 horse-hair, and make its habitation, a moveable house 

 or case, in which it travels from place to place, of this 

 untractable material. These little creatures Avill shave 

 the hair from a skin as neatly and closely as if a razor 

 had been employed''. — The most natural food of the 

 next species, T. sarcitella, is wool ; but in case of ne- 

 cessity it w ill eat fur and hair. To woollen cloths or 

 stuffs it often does incredible injury, especially if they 

 are not kept dry and well aired''. Of the devastation 

 committed by T. Mellonella in our bee-hives 1 have 

 before given you an account ; to this I must here add, 

 that if it cannot come at wax, it will content itself with 

 woollen cloth, leather, or even paper"*. Besides these 

 moths, a small beetle of the Capricorn tribe {CaUidium 

 pi/gmceun^ F.) 1 have good reason to believe dcvoursi 

 leather, since I have found it abundant in old shoes. 



Next to our garments our houses and buildings, 

 which shelter us and our property from the inclemency 



' Rea-jm. iii. 560, " Ibid. 59. ' Ibid. 42. "* Ibid. 557. 



