242 



Insect Architecture. 



of its wings rounded, and Galleria cereana having them 

 squared. 



[Some moths, also belonging to the vast Family Tineidse, 

 do much damage to grain, and have also the habit of spinning 

 silken tissues as they eat their way through the grain. One 

 of them is more plentiful on the Continent than in England, 

 but is known in this country by the name of the mottled 

 woollen moth (Tinea graneHa)~\. 



The caterpillar, which is smooth and white, ties together 

 with silk several grains of wheat, barley, rye, or oats, weaving 

 a gallery between them, from which it projects its head while 

 feeding ; the grains, as Eeaumur remarks, being prevented 

 from rolling or slipping by the silk which unites them. He 

 justly ridicules the absurd notion of its filing off the outer 

 skin of the wheat by rubbing upon it with its body, the 

 latter being the softer of the two , and he disproved, by 

 experiment, Leeuwenhoeck's assertion that it will also feed 

 on woollen cloth. It is from the end of May till the 

 beginning of July that the moths, which are of a silvery 

 grey, spotted with brown, appear and lay their eggs in 

 granaries. 



Transformations of the Grain-moths, o, Grain of barley, including a caterpillar ; b, c, 

 the grain cut across, seen to be hollowed out, and divided by a partition of silk ; d, the 

 moth (Tinea Hordei) ; e, grains of wheat tied together by the caterpillar ; /, g. the cater- 

 pillar and moth (JSuplocamus grandld). 



The caterpillar of another still more singular grain-moth 

 (Tinea Hordei, KIRBY and SPENCE) proves sometimes very 



