146 DORSET CLOTHES-MOTHS AND THEIR HABITS. 



present and the clothes-moths had also to forego the comforts they 

 now enjoy and pick up a scanty living from bird's nests or any 

 other food that was suited to their tastes. This they still do to a 

 certain extent, for most of the species are found occasionally far 

 from any human habitation though they are always scarce in what 

 may be termed their wild state, there being comparatively little 

 food to support them. 



A thorough-going clothes-moth and one which is occasionally 

 very troublesome is Tinea (Tineola) liselliella, Hiim. It is a pretty 

 little moth rather larger than pellionella and with spotless wings of 

 a pale buff colour, sometimes tinged with grey. In my house it 

 goes by the name of the " greatcoat moth," in remembrance of the 

 ravages it committed upon one of those garments many years ago. 

 The larva makes no case, but spins a loose silken tube as it wends 

 its way through the wool or fur, and in the case of the greatcoat 

 above referred to, showed a marked predilection for the seams of 

 the cloth, eating a bare line along almost every seam. The reason 

 of this was no doubt that there was more or less of a fold at each 

 seam, and the larva was able to live in greater retirement : like all 

 its companions in evil, it loves darkness. Some time ago I received 

 some very fine and richly coloured specimens of this species which 

 had been bred from a cargo of guano. My correspondent thought 

 that they might be distinct from biselliella, but it is found in 

 various parts of the world and I am told that in some it takes the 

 form above described. 



I have now done with the genus Tinea, which contains most of 

 our chief foes, and come to two species which occur in most houses 

 and often do muck damage. 



The first, (Ecopliora pseudospretella, Sta., is an obscure looking 

 moth with the fore-wings of a brownish colour mottled with darker 

 brown. It varies considerably in size like most clothes-moths, the 

 largest specimens measuring nearly an inch across the wings. The 

 larva does not, I think, attack woollen garments, though its 

 depredations in the house are often extensive in other ways. It 

 eats furs and skins, dried specimens of animals, birds, &c., includ- 



