108 CLOTHES' MOTHS. 



of wheat or of barley, and no sooner are the caterpillar 

 mischiefs hatched than they disperse, each choosing for himself 

 a single grain to be at once his habitation and his hoard. 



Of the same Tinea family, but distinguished from the Grain 

 Moths by their appetite for animal instead of vegetable food, 

 are the well-known Clothes' Moths, 1 lovers of fur, wool, 

 tapestry, and dried insect specimens. Most people are well 

 enough acquainted, to their cost, with the destructive operations 

 of these wardrobe pests; but some, possibly, may be ignorant 

 that muffs and silks and stuffs afford food, not only for their 

 appetite, but also for their constructive skill : the little ma- 

 rauders being accustomed to make for themselves out of these 

 materials, what we may designate either habitations or clothing, 

 moveable tents or closely-fitting body-coats. 



The Moth caterpillars of the cabinet scruple not to make free 

 with the wings of their defunct fellow-insects, cutting and 

 clipping them into convenient pieces for the shaping and 

 strengthening of their own body-coats. 2 



Another little destructive, who is apt to make herself more 

 free than welcome within the precincts of our dwellings, is 

 called the Tabby, 3 for what reason we cannot exactly tell. 

 These Moths settle in our libraries and larders ; and their 

 numerous families are born and nurtured, just also as it may 

 happen, upon books or butter. Their taste, when literary, is, 

 however, like that of many other bibliomaniacs, somewhat 

 superficial, having reference rather to the leather than the 

 language : the binding, rather than the body, of the works is 

 the object of their esteem. A Moth caterpillar of another 

 description dives, however, somewhat deeper into learned lore, 

 and, devouring the page adorned by mildew and black-letter, 

 prizes books in proportion to their mouldiness rather than their 

 merit. 



Our Moth destructives have now been traced home to our 



1 Tinea pdlionella. 2 See Insect Architecture, p. 209. 



3 Aylossa pinguvialis. 



