MOTH. SILK-WOIIM. 415 



wings have a dark-brown rib, which extends across the thorax; 

 body covered with white wool. It inhabits North America. 



4. P. pavonia. Wings rounded, clouded with grey and barred 

 with grey beneath, each of them with a nictitant semitransparent 

 eye. The most beautiful European insect of the bombyx parti- 

 tion : its wings, when extended, measure about six inches. It is 

 subject to several varieties in its size, and the disposition of its 

 markings; the larve is gregarious and green, verticillate with red 

 or yellow hairy protuberances ; pupe blackish, folljculate, with 

 an elastic aperture at the rib. It is occasionally found in our own. 

 country. 



5. P. sambucaria. Wings tailed, angular, yellowish, with two 

 darker streaks; lower ones with two reddish dots at the tip. It 

 is an elegant moth, of a pale sulphur colour, found in June and 

 July, on the leaves of the elder-tree, whence its specific name. 

 Its chrysalis is black, and may be readily traced in the month of 

 May in the same situation. It belongs to the partition geometra. 



6. P. vestianella. Cloth-moth. Wings cinereous with a white 

 rib, the tips ascending and feathered. This insect belongs to the 

 tinea division, and is the common moth ftfund in cloths and woollen 

 furniture, and so destructive to them. 



7. P. sarcitella. Wings cinereous, thorax with a white dot on 

 each side. This also belongs to the division tinea, and is found in 

 skin-cloths and woollen furniture; to which, like the last, it proves 

 terribly destructive. 



These moths construct the abode in which they reside of the 

 grains of wool, or other materials, which they gnaw off. Their 

 food is of the same substance ; and what greatly increases the 

 extent of their devastations is, thai every step they advance upon 

 cloth, feeling themselves incommoded by the wool in their way, 

 they gnaw a smooth passage for themselves, like a man with a 

 scythe in his hand, cutting down the grass of the meadow as he 

 proceeds. Hence these species are among the most destructive of 

 the tribe. The most costly articles of fur are those which are not 

 worn every day ; and for this very reason they are most exposed 

 to their attacks. The methods for preventing their devastations 

 may be reduced to the two following ; either we must destroy the 

 insects, or render our clothes disagreeable food for them. The 

 insects may be destroyed by oil, or the fumes of tobacco ; and the 



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