488 LEPIDOPTERA. 



signifying to gnaw or to eat.* Nearly all the moth-worms, 

 or caterpillars belonging to the tribe of Tineas, gnaw holes or 

 winding paths in the substances wherein they live. Some 

 of the fragments they devour, and the rest they fasten to- 

 gether, with a few silken threads, so as to shelter or clothe 

 their tender bodies. With these materials some of them 

 make cylindrical burrows, through which they can move 

 freely, and carry on the destruction unseen ; and others, 

 with the same, shape for themselves various kinds of pods 

 or cases, large enough to cover their bodies entirely when 

 they are at rest, and so light that they can bear them about 

 on their backs, as snails do then* shells. Some moth-worms 

 are dark-colored; but most of them are of a dirty white 

 color, with a brownish head, and a brown spot on the top 

 of the first ring. They are either wholly naked, or have 

 only a few short hairs thinly scattered over the surface of 

 their bodies. They generally have sixteen legs. Some, 

 however, want the first pair of prop-legs, having only four- 

 teen in all. They undergo their transformations in the 

 burrows or cases that have served them for habitations, 

 either with or without the additional covering of a cocoon 

 spun within their places of abode. The chrysalids are of 

 a brown color, and are rather more slender than those of 

 other moths. In the winged state they vary greatly both 

 in form and color. They all agree, however, in having the 

 wings long and narrow, and folded or wrapped around the 

 body, more or less closely, when they are at rest. Their 

 antenna are bristle-shaped, and very rarely feathered in 

 either sex. Some of them have four feelers, others only 

 two ; and the spiral tongue is short. Most of these winged 

 moths are very small ; indeed, the least of the Lepidoptera 

 belong to this tribe. They have been divided by some nat- 

 uralists into two, and by others into three groups, namely, 

 Crambidce, Yponomeutadw, and Tineadce, the differences be- 



* From the Gothic maten, to gnaw, and from mat/an, to eat, we have the Anglo- 

 Saxon word mott, as now uad, and matha, a maggot 



