MEAL AND TABBY MOTHS 113 



body in a very oily condition and nothing would tend 

 more easily and effectually to clog up the spiracles than 

 such a condition. Accordingly, it has been stated that 

 this insect is gifted with a special power of retracting its 

 spiracles and protecting them by folds of its skin ; but 

 the evidence for this is not very satisfactory, and the 

 recent and very careful investigations of the late Mr. 

 W. Buckler, who devoted much time to the study of the 

 subject, do not tend to substantiate the statement at all, 

 but seem rather to indicate that the insect has no more 

 power than any other to protect itself from the injurious 

 effects of an oily condition of its skin. Mr. Buckler 

 tried on several occasions to induce a caterpillar to eat 

 butter and lard by putting it with these substances 

 under a large glass, but he says, " In every case it 

 seemed carefully to shun both, and though I contrived 

 once that it should at least walk over some lard, it did 

 so nimbly enough, but could not be induced to walk over 

 it a second time, invariably swerving aside." Nor did 

 greas}' cloth present any greater attractions, though the 

 insects fed readily enough on a collection of rubbish 

 which contained husks of wheat and oats, fragments of 

 straw and thatch, and of pods of beans, small seeds of 

 various kinds, short bits of grass and other dried stems, 

 woolly dust, empty pupa skins of small moths, and a 

 quantity of undeterminable chaffy and earthy matter. 



A good idea of the mode of life of these insects may 

 be obtained from a description given by Mr. Buckler of 

 a colony he discovered in a stable. They were found in 

 a dark corner between the oat-bin and the wall. There 

 was only a very narrow space between the two, but 

 quantities of grain and chaff, and particles of straw, 

 frequently fell into it when the oat-bin was opened. On 

 the cool and damp floor beneath, the caterpillars had 



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