434 



of Natural 



ap 



fl 



iarians. Male: Antennae, head, and back 

 ay-yellow ; on the back behind the scu- 

 tellum rises a small blackish-brown tuft of 

 hair, the point of which is white ; abdomen 

 yellowish brown. The upper wings are 

 broad, short, and obtuse : the fore border 

 j slightly curved, the fringe border lunated, 

 notched inwardly, the inner border rather 

 I waving, with a small hollow exactly oppo- 

 | site the corner of the inner angle. The 

 i colour is dusty ash gray. From the base to 

 the middle there is a white slender band, on 

 which are scattered single dark brown mi- 

 nute spots. Upon the fore-border, and along 

 the fringe-border, are lines in the same di- 

 rection, proceeding from a spotted band, 

 which is angularly bent, and faint. The 

 inner border is light yellowish for a consi- 

 derable breadth, from the base to the inner 

 angle, with many purplish-brown, short, 

 elevated, wool-like lines in the same direc- 

 tion ; so that when the wings are closed 

 above, an apparently furrowed surface will 

 be formed. The fringes are jagged, brown 

 and white at the points, and surrounded in- 

 i wardly with a darker hair-like line. The 

 under wings are light ash gray, and spme- 

 ! times brownish gray, with lighter fringes 

 edged with white, and a yellowish line for 

 their inner boundary. The female is not 

 1 only much larger than the male, but distin- 

 guished from him by a darker rusty brown 

 i head and back. The abdomen is thick and 

 ! club-shaped, furnished with a brownish gray 

 I ovipositor, and the feet of the same colour. 

 The upper wings are darker, obtuse, straight, 

 almost rectangular, and a trace of the faint 

 spotted band is rarely perceptible. The 

 under wings are much lighter, white, but 

 with a dark gray dusty border, and darker 

 veins of the same colour, as far as the white 

 fringes, which are surrounded with a yel- 

 lowish colour. 



The caterpillar is cylindrically spindle- 

 shaped, when fully grown from ten to twelve 

 lines long, and two lines thick, dirty white, 

 with scarcely visible brown single tubercles, 

 emitting slender hairs. The head is chest- 

 . nut brown, the back of the following seg- 

 ' ment rather darker, divided lengthwise by 

 ! a whitish line, which line is sometimes con- 

 ! tinued indistinctly along the back : the belly 

 and sixteen feet are bone-coloured. It pre- 

 pares for itself, immediately on issuing from 

 the egg, a web, or covered passage, with 

 I thick/strong threads, in which it lodges by 

 i day safe from the attacks of the bees, and 

 j only seeks its food, which consists of wax, 

 i at night, when the bees are at rest. At first, 

 ' these caterpillars only live in the lower 

 i cells, but when they are bigger they ascend 

 i higher, lengthening their passage as they 

 proceed ; so that when there are many of 

 them, in a hive, it is entirely rilled with these 

 j webs. The bees which are entangled in 

 I them and cannot get away, die. Three 

 hundred caterpillars have been found in a 

 hive. They attain their full size within 

 three weeks, and are then ready for entering 

 the pupa state. When this is the case, they 

 make for themselves a much firmer and en- 

 tirely closed web, either in the above-named 

 passages, or in a concealed corner of the 



hive. In this web the caterpillar lives from 

 ten to twenty-eight days unchanged, but is 

 finally transformed into a brown pupa, out 

 of which the moth appears in fourteen days. 

 Those which become pupae in autumn lie 

 the whole winter in that state. There are 

 two generations of them in a year. The 

 moth of the first generation appears in spring, 

 and that of the second in the beginning of 

 July. The female lays her eggs at night, 

 in the cracks of the lower part of the hive, 

 from which the young caterpillars find their 

 way to the honeycomb. 



There is but one sure method of clearing 

 the bee-hives of this moth, and this consists 

 in looking for and destroying the larvae and 

 pupae. If the hives are examined only once 

 a week for this purpose, any traces of covered 

 passages will easily be perceived, and must 

 be immediately removed, and destroyed with 

 the caterpillars in them. The corners of 

 the hive must also be closely examined, in 

 case of cocoons being there, which must also 

 be destroyed. A lighted candle is also re- 

 commended to be held before the hole of the 

 bee-hive, that the moth, flying out to the 

 light, may be burnt. But this is labour in 

 vain, for the female does not leave the hive 

 till she has laid her eggs ; and it is only 

 supernumerary males that perish in the 

 flame. Killlar. 



The CLOTHES-MOTH. (Tinea vestiandla.) 

 As soon as the caterpillar quits the egg, it be- 

 gins to form a nest. For this purpose, having 

 spun a thin coating of silk round its body, 

 it cuts filaments of wool or fur close to the 

 thread of the cloth, and applies the pieces 

 to the outside of its case ; which covering it 

 never leaves except in cases of urgent ne- 

 cessity. When it wishes to feed, it puts out 

 its head at either end of the case, as may be 

 most convenient, When inclined to change 

 its position, it protrudes its head and about 

 half its body, and thus moves forward, drag- 

 ging its case by fixing its hinder legs firmly 

 in it : and when, from its increase in size, 

 the case becomes too small, it makes an 

 addition to it at each end. This operation 

 can be readily traced by transferring it from 

 cloth of one colour to another, when each 

 addition will be conspicuous from the differ- 

 ence of colour. After changing into a chry- 

 salis in April, or May, it remains quiescent 

 for about three weeks, when a small noc- 

 turnal Moth, of a silvery gray colour, comes 

 forth. It is said that Moths never attack 

 unit-ashed wool that is, wool as it comes 

 from the sheep's back, before any cleansing 

 process has been employed that will deprive 

 it of its natural oil or smell. It is therefore 

 recommended to be placed in layers between 

 clothes, or kept in small parcels in the cor- 

 ners of shelves or drawers. The most im- 

 portant, by far, of all the species is the Silk- 

 worm Moth. [See SII.KWOKM. See also 

 AUCTIA : STAUROPUS : Cossus : HEPIALI-S, 



&c Such of our readers as may wish for 



further information respecting the genera 

 and species of this most extensive class of 

 insects, are referred to the works of Stephens, 

 Curtis, Wood, Humphreys, and Westwood's 

 British Moths ; also to Mr. Henry Double- 



