304 INSECTA. 



whose caterpillars have fourteen legs, and roll up leaves. In the 

 perfect Insect the inferior palpi are elong-ated and recurved. Its 

 wings and body, on the sides of which the former are extended hori- 

 zontally, form a sort of delta, marked by a re-entering angle in the 

 posterior side, or appearing to be forked. The antennae are xisually 

 pectinated or ciliated. 



The Deltoides form the subgenus 



Herminia, Lat., 

 Which belongs to the division of the Pyralides of Linnaeus, and 

 is composed of the genus Hyblcea, Fab., and of several of his 

 Crajnbi *. 



The ninth section of the nocturnal Lepidoptera, that of the Ti- 

 NEiTEs — Tineites, Lat.; Phdhena tinece, L., and most of his P. py- 

 ralides — comprises the smallest species of this order. Their cater- 

 pillars are always closely shorn, furnished with sixteen feet at least, 

 and rectigrade, living concealed in dwellings fabricated by them- 

 selves, either fixed or movable. Here the wings form a sort of elon- 

 gated and almost flattened triangle, terminated by a re-entering 

 angle; such are the Pyralides of Linneeusf; they have four distinct 

 and usually exposed palpi. There, the superior wings are long and 

 narrow, sometimes moulded on the body, and forming a sort of 

 rounded roof to it, sometimes almost perpendicularly decumbent and 

 laid on the sides, and frequently raised or ascending posteriorly like 

 the tail of a cock. In both cases the inferior wings are always wide 

 and plaited. These species also frequently have the four palpi ex- 

 posed. 



All the caterpillars, whose habitations (sheaths) are fi^jed or im- 

 movable, are the Pseudo-Tinece of Reaumur; those which construct 

 portable ones, which they transport with them, are true Tineae. 



The substances on which they feed, or on which they reside, fur- 

 nish the materials of the structure. 



Of those sheaths which are composed of vegetable matters, many 

 are very singular. Some, like those of the Adelse, are covered ex- 

 teriorly with portions of leaves laid one over the other and forming 

 a sort of flounce : others are in the form of a bat, and sometimes den- 

 tated along one of their sides. The material of some of them is 

 diaphanous, and as if cellular or divided by scales. 



The caterpillars of the true Tineee, commonly called Moths, clothe 

 themselves with particles of woollen stuff's, which they cut with their 

 jaws and on which they feed, hairs of furs, and those of the skins of 

 animals in zoological collections, united by silk. They know how 

 to lengthen their sheath, or to increase its diameter by slitting it and 

 adding a new piece. In these tubes they undergo their metamor- 

 phoses, after closing the orifices with silk. 



Those who wish to become Avell acquainted with the manner in 

 Avhich they construct these habitations, and to acquire a knowledge of 

 their various forms and materials, must have recourse to the Memoirs 

 of Reaumur, Rcesel, and De Geer. 



* Lat., Gener. Crust, et Insect., IV, 228. 

 t They might form a separate section. 



