THE CLOTHES MOTH. 



65 



wool has given^.stature to our hero. His case has grown uncom- 

 fortably small. Shall he leave it and make another? No house- 

 wife is more prudent and saving. Out come those scissor-jaws, 

 and, lo ! a fearful rent along each side of one end of the case. 

 Two wedge-shaped patches mend the breach; the caterpillar 

 retires for a moment and reappears at the other end ; the scis- 

 sors are once more pulled out; two rents appear, to be filled up 

 by two more patches or gores, and our caterpillar once again 

 breathes more freely, laughs and grows fat upon horse hair and 

 lambs' wool. In this way he enlarges his case till he stops 

 growing. 



Our caterpillar seeming to be full-grown, and apparently out 

 of employment, we cut the end of his case half off. Two or 

 three clays after, he had mended it from the inside, drawing the 

 two edges together by silken threads, and, though he had not 

 touched the outside, yet so 

 neatly were the two parts 

 joined together that we had 

 to search for some time, 

 with a lens, to find the scar. 



To keep our friend busy 

 during the cold, cheerless 

 weather, for it was mid- 

 winter, we next cut a third 

 of the case entirely off. No- 

 thing daunted, the little fel- 

 low bustled about, drew in a mass of the woolly fibres, filling 

 up the whole mouth of his den, and began to build on afresh, 

 and from the inside, so that the new-made portion was smaller 

 than the rest of the case. The creature worked very slowly, 

 and the addition was left in a rough, unfinished state. 



We could easily spare these voracious little worms hairs 

 enough to serve as food, and to afford material for the construc- 

 tion of their paltry cases ; but that restless spirit that ever 

 urges on all beings endowed with life and the power of motion, 

 never forsakes the young clothes moth for a moment. He 

 will not be forced to drag his heavy case over rough hairs and 

 furzy wool, hence with his keen jaws he cuts his way through. 

 Thus, the more he travels, the more mischief he does. 



After taking his fill of this sort of life he changes to a chrys- 

 alid (Fig. 59), and soon appears as one of those delicate, tiny, 



59. 58. 57. 



Early Stages of the Clothes Moth. 



