BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS. 199 



seen in numbers. Of these some will belong to 

 beetles, but others will, in many instances, develop 

 into Tortrices. It is difficult for the unpractised eye 

 of a person who is not an entomologist to determine 

 at once whether any one of these larvae belongs to 

 beetles or moths ; but there are characters which 

 enable the practised eye to detect the difference at 

 once. If we look down a list of the British species 

 of the Tortrices, we shall be surprised to see how 

 variable are the homes and haunts of these diminu- 

 tive creatures, and what widespread injury they must 

 inflict on vegetation if there were not also natural 

 checks to their increase in insectivorous insects 

 and birds, continually at work reducing their 

 numbers. 



There exists a very strong prejudice, in domestic 

 circles at least, against all the small moths, the 

 little, sombre-coloured insects which flutter about 

 everywhere in the summer-time, and, when fully ex- 

 panded, are not larger than one's finger nail. All of 

 these are called Clothes Moths, and a war of exter- 

 mination is ever going on against them in all well- 

 regulated families. It must be admitted that the 

 caterpillars of some of the Tineina, as they are 

 called, feed on clothes, sofa linings, and other articles 

 of personal use ; but of the six or seven hundred 

 British species this number is comparatively few. 

 Many of them are in this stage leaf-miners, that is, 

 the caterpillars, or maggots, eat a gallery under the 

 cuticle of living leaves, ornamenting the leaf in a 

 manner peculiar to each species. These are the 

 woodland species, which appertain to our subject. 



