DORSET CLOTHES-MOTHS AND THEIR HABITS. 141 



Many larvae will eat their way out of a muslin bag, and some 

 have been known to eat holes in linen left out to bleach on the 

 grass, but this was not in order to obtain food, but merely to get 

 through an obstacle. I am not aware that any larvae in this 

 country regularly feed on linen, cotton, or silk material, but only 

 on wool, hair, fur, skin, feathers, &c. I have heard of what I 

 believe to be one genuine instance of their feeding on calico, but it 

 is certainly very unusual. 



Aglossa pinguinalis. This species feeds usually on hay refuse in 

 a silken tube, but Reaumur says he found them feeding on leather 

 covers of books and dry bodies of dead insects. [See " En- 

 tomologist's Monthly Magazine," xx., 193.] They occur in most 

 farm stables, but rarely in houses. 



Tinea (Bldbophanes) imella, Hb., is a very local species, and I 

 am not aware that the larva has been observed in England. A 

 correspondent of mine in Lancashire used to take the moth rather 

 commonly close to a rubbish heap, in which the larva doubtless 

 fed, but he was unable to find it. One specimen has occurred at 

 Portland, the only recorded one for the county of Dorset. Though 

 it may strictly be considered a clothes-moth, it is one of those 

 which is sufficiently scarce to cause me to welcome it to my house 

 if it appeared there. The only notice of the larva that I have met 

 with is by Carl von Heyden, in 1826, as follows : "I found these 

 larvae near Frankfort in November, in great plenty in an old felt 

 shoe, which was lying in a field, almost covered with earth. The 

 larvse lived gregariously, in closely-crowded tubes, which are 

 externally coated with earth. Some of the moths were developed 

 in a few days ; the remainder in the month of May following. 

 ["Entomologist's Annual," 1868, p. 9.] 



Tinea (Blaboplianes) lombardica, Hering. "Whether this is a 

 species closely allied to ferrurfinella, Hb, or only a form of that 

 species 'seems still a little doubtful. It is the only form found at 

 Portland so far as I am aware, the typical ferrurjinella not occurring 

 at all in that locality. Major Hering, who, with others, feels 

 satisfied of its specific distinctness, tells me that it has been 



