June 1, 1887.] 



♦ KNO^A^LEE)GE ♦ 



179 



of its beauty, but being so abundant, and a " moth " to boot, 

 its fail" exterior goes for nothing, and it is onlj- considered a 

 nuisance. It has brownish fore- wings, speckled with darker, 

 but its head and thorax are of a pure snow white. This 

 description is quite sufficient to enable it to be recognised, 

 for there is no other little moth like it. It is a larger insect 

 than most of the preceding, and the wings, when fully 

 spread, stretch about two-thirds of an inch. Its white head, 

 which is an exquisite object for a low power of the micro- 

 scope, renders it easily seen, and in consequence it has often 

 to pay the penalty of death for crimes it has never com- 

 mitted. The finger of the careful housekeeper often comes 



Fir„ 2.— EjfDROsis Fbnestrblla. 



down upon it with vengeance, treating it as a devourer of 

 woollen goods, when the real culprits — such insignificant 

 creatui'es as T. j>elUoneUa and biselliella — by theii- smaller 

 .size and oliscure appearance, escape notice. It is, in fact, 

 not a clothes-eater ; its larva feeds upon all sorts of waste 

 substances, especially those of a vegetable nature, and thus, 

 no doubt, often clears up for us a good deal of rubbish out 

 of odd corners. It may be found all the year round, and 

 probably there is scarcely a house anywhere of which it is 

 not an inhabitant. 



Though the presence of the window-moth in our houses 

 may be condoned, the .same cannot be said of its near ally, 

 the detestable pest, CEcopJwra jjseudo-spretdla. This is one 

 of the most destructive insects imaginable, and is apparently 

 a perfectly general feeder ; nothing that is in the smallest 

 degree edible comes amiss to it. It is rather larger than 

 Endrosis fenestrella, of a pale brown colour, more or less 

 completely mottled over with dark brown, and with three 

 very deep brown spots, two before the middle of the wing, 

 placed one above the other, like a colon, and one beyond the 

 middle. The distinctness of these spots depends upon the 

 intensity of the ground colour of the wings, which varies a 

 good deal. The hind-wings are paler without markings, 

 and as usual have long fringes. When in good condition, 

 which is not likely to be the case, except just after emer- 

 gence from the pupa, the fore-wings are shiny. They are 

 placed in a flat position over the back, and thus cause the 

 insect to appear larger than a Tinea of the same size would. 

 The moth is fond of concealment, and often hides amongst 

 the substances that have suffered from its depredations. 

 When disturbed, it runs rather than dies, and that very 

 rapidly, at once seeking shelter again. To pursue it with 

 one's fingers is no easy task ; it is so rapid in its move- 

 ments and so slippery when touched, in consequence of the 

 glossiness of its scales, that the pursuit is apt to try both 

 patience and temper of pursuer. 



The caterpillar is a whitish creature with a brown head, 

 of an active habit, but concealing itself most eflectually by 

 spinning together quantities of the material it happens to be 

 feeding upon. It does not take the trouble to bite ofi^ neat 

 pieces of this material and weave them carefully and deftly 

 together, as the clothes-moths would do, but seizes hold of 

 anything near, whatever its size, and attaches it, as it is, by 

 one of its ends, so that the pile seems Httle more than an 

 accidental heap. lender this it can feed at its ease. But a 

 keen^eye will soon detect traces of its presence, in the shape 

 of pellets of excrement thrust out from the end of its tunnel. 

 It is particulai'ly fond of invading an entomologist's stores 



of insects, and if he be by any means careless enough to 

 grant it a footing he will find immense damage done before 

 he suspects anything, and also find that his little foes are 

 very difficult of eradication. The ravages in sucli cases are 

 really very cleverly concealed : e.g., the unfortunate collector, 

 noticing one of his larger moths, say, with its wings droop- 

 ing apparently a little more than usual, essays to remove 

 the specimen with a view to discovering the cause, when he 

 finds that, as he pulls out the pin on which it is impaled, he 

 removes no more than a mere shell of the body, and leaves 

 the wings attached to the bottom of the box; pseudo- 

 sprctella has been at work, and has cleverly fastened down 

 the wings of the moth, but in such a way as hardly to dis- 

 turb their position, and then, using them as a roof, has 

 proceeded to scoop out the contents of the body, being still 

 CiU'eful to leave the skin entire, so that until the tug at the 

 pin reveals to the chagrined entomologist the utter destruc- 

 tion of his specimen, it looks almost as perfect as ever. 



From this habit of concealment, practised by both larvre 

 and perfect insects, it often happens that vast damage is 

 done before the presence of the destroyer is suspected, and 

 in any case the damage is sui'e to he great, so much more 

 being spoilt by being woven into the roof of the shed than 

 is really destroyed by being eaten. Mr. C. S. Gregson speaks 

 of tons of rice in a warehouse having been destroyed by this 

 insect. Each caterpillar had spun together six or eight 

 rice-grains, and they thus made numbers of little bundles of 

 rice, which they used both as shelters and as food. The 

 same observer speaks of having been informed that some 

 small caterpillars were doing great damage amongst the 

 stores of sweeping-brooms belonging to one of the local 

 government boards in Liverpool. On receiving specimens 

 of the damaged articles, he found that they were ling besoms 

 (brooms made of heather or ling), and that the destroyer 

 was none other than pseudo-spretella, which, notwith- 

 standing that all it had had to live upon was dr\- heather 

 brooms, was nevertheless more fat and flourishing than 

 usual. 



The larva of this insect is a winter feeder, and may be 

 found in the early months of the year, the moth appearing 

 in July and August. 



A very near- relative of these two insects, called (Ecogenia 

 Kindennanniella, is sometimes found in houses, especially 

 near London. It is smaller than either of its allies, and is 

 a very pretty insect, having the narrow fore-wings dark 

 purplish-brown, with thi-ee broad pale yellow patches. 



American En-glisii. — A Boston man tells how few in 

 England understand American-English. " I had not been 

 in Liverpool an hour," he says, " when I became convinced 

 that I had much to learn about the English language. 

 When I entered my hotel I asked the young woman who 

 received me, ' What are your terms 1 ' and had I spoken 

 Choctaw she could not have understood me less. ' What do 

 you charge a day ? ' I next ventured. ' Charge ? ' she 

 replied, vaguely, and I gave it up. Another woman was 

 summoned, and I tried again. ' Ah I you want the tariff?' 

 she said at last, and sure enough I did. Now, if I had 

 used the word 'tariff' in that sense in Boston, it would 

 have been considered slang. [It is clear the mistake lay not 

 in the ^rords used, but in the thing signified ; the Boston 

 man misunderstood our hotel ways.] I tried in vain 

 to get a pair of suspenders, as they would show me none 

 but those for stockings, but succeeded finally in buying some 

 ' braces.' I might prolong the list ad iiijinitum, but enough 

 is shown to w.irrant the publicfition of an American- English 

 dictionary of synonyms for the use of travellers." 



