loo OUR HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



fare as carpets, horse-cloths, &c. The thickness and 

 more substantial character of this food affords the grubs 

 protection also, and renders the construction of a 

 separate case unnecessary. As they burrow into the 

 cloth, it is thick enough to conceal them, and they, 

 therefore, only care to line their burrows with silk. In 

 these tunnels they can reside and feed quite secure 

 from observation. This insect is sometimes called the 

 " tapestry moth," from the fact of its depredations 

 occurring chiefly in such materials; the linings of 

 carriages^ too, are sometimes destroyed by it. The 

 caterpillar may be found in April and May, and the 

 moth in June and July. From its habits one may 

 easily gather that it is less frequently met with in the 

 house than in outbuildings, such as stables, coach-houses, 

 &c. I once found quite a family of them in a piece of 

 carpet that was used as a bandage round a young 

 sapling in a garden to prevent the cord by which it 

 was tied up from injuring the bark. 



Lastly, there is T. rusticella. This is less strictly a 

 clothes moth than the others ; it seems to be in no way 

 particular as to the exact character of its diet, provided 

 it be of an animal nature, and sufficiently dry, and in 

 consequence it has been found in the most unlikely 

 places. For instance, Mr. C. G. Barrett one winter 

 collected a number of old nests belonging to chaffinches 

 and other birds of that sort nests that are largely com- 

 posed of wool and hair and on keeping them till the 

 summer he obtained from them large numbers of Tinece, 

 the Iarva3 of which had been feeding on the materials 

 of which the nests were composed ; and amongst these 

 were some specimens of the above insect. Again, it 

 was found by Mr. C. Eales in a more unsavoury locality 

 still. He one day came across the dried-up corpse of a 



