80 INTRODUCTION. 



required. But such a proceeding on the part of 

 the worm would expose its body for a time with* 

 out adequate protection, an accident of which it 

 seems to have the utmost dread and guards against 

 it with every precaution. It accordingly makes 

 the rent extend only half way along, and when that 

 fissure is filled up, forms another at the opposite 

 end. There are generally two fissures made in each 

 half, the one being opposite the other, so that the 

 widening of the tube is effected by the insertion of 

 four separate pieces. The colour of the garment is 

 necessarily the same as that of the cloth which 

 affords the raw material, and if the latter be party- 

 coloured it exhibits a corresponding variety of hues. 

 The creature feeds on the same material with which 

 it clothes itself 



These may be called domestic moths, as they are 

 found only in houses, where they live at the expense 

 of the proprietor. Others, of more innoxious habits, 

 frequent the foliage of trees, and fabricate, with still 

 greater ingenuity, their little moveable tents from 

 the thin membranes which form the outer coats of 

 the leaves. Their proceedings were first accurately 

 described by Reaumur, whose account we shall there- 

 fore follow, using as nearly as possible his own words. 

 One of the kinds which he mentions is found on 

 the leaves of the elm, and its method of working 

 may be taken as an example of the plan followed 

 by the whole tribe. It commences by mining its 

 way into the substance of the leaf between the two 

 enclosing membranes, consuming, as it proceeds,, the 



