2 
What first led to the association of these and other household pests 
with man is an interesting problem. In the case of the clothes moths, 
the larvee of all of which can, in case of necessity, still subsist on 
almost any dry animal matter, their early association with man was 
probably in the role of scavengers, and in prehistoric times they 
probably fed on waste animal material about human habitations and 
on fur garments. The fondness they exhibit nowadays for tailor-made 
suits and other expensive products of the loom is simply an illustra- 
tion of their ability to keep pace with man in his development in the 
matter of clothing from the skin garments of savagery to the artistic 
products of the modern tailor and dressmaker. 
Three common destructive species of clothes moths occur in this 
country. Much confusion, however, exists in all the early writings 
on these insects, all three species being inextricably mixed in the 
descriptions and accounts of habits. Collections of these moths were 
submitted some years 
ago by Professors 
Fernald and Riley to 
Lord Walsingham, of 
Merton Hall, Eng- 
land, the world’s au- 
thority on tineids, 
and from the latter’s 
careful diagnosis it is 
now possible to sepa- 
rate and recognize 
Fic. 1.—Tinea pellionella: Above, adult; at right, larva; at the different species 
left, larvain case. Enlarged (from Riley). 
easily. 
The common injurious clothes moths are the case-making species 
(Tinea pellionella L.), the webbing species or Southern clothes moth 
( Tineola biselliella Hummel), and the gallery species or tapestry moth 
( Trichophaga tapetzella L.). 
A few other species, which normally infest animal products, may 
occasionally also injure woolens, but are not of sufficient importance 
to be here noted. 
THE CASE-MAKING CLOTHES MOTH. 
The case-making clothes moth (Tinea pellionella L.) (fig. 1) is the 
only species which constructs for its protection a true transportable case. 
It was characterized by Linneus, and carefully studied by Réaumur, 
early in the last century. Its more interesting habits have caused it 
to be often a subject of investigation, and its life history will serve to 
illustrate the habits of all the clothes moths. 
The moth expands about half an inch, or from 10 to 14 mm. _ Its 
head and forewings are grayish yellow, with indistinct fuscous spots on 
