54 DIRECT INJURIES FROM MOTHS. 



for these depredators insinuate themselves no one 

 knows how, and they are too frequently left unnoticed 

 till they have completed their work of destruction. 

 Linnaeus describes five species of these, the Tinea 

 vestinella, tapetzella, pellionella, sarcitclla, and mello- 

 tiflla. Of the first of these we have no particular 

 history, only that it destroys clothes during summer ; 

 but of the others, Reaumur has given a very complete 

 account. The Tapestry Moth (Tinea tapetzella) is 

 very common in our houses, and very destructive to 

 the furniture of carriages, which is usually more 

 exposed to the air than the furniture of our 

 apartments. They do not construct a moveable 

 habitation like the common species, but, gnawing 

 their way in the thickness of the cloth, weave them- 

 selves silken galleries, in which they domicile, and 

 which they render snug and warm, by covering them 

 with some of the eroded wool.* The Skin Moth 

 ( Tinea pellionella) is the dread of ladies in all parts 

 of the world, who have too often occasion to deplore 

 the frightful devastation they commit on the costly 

 furs of muffs, tippets, and trimmings. These hidden 

 depredators are alike the pest of the princess and the 

 poorest peasant of northern regions, sparing neither , 

 the ermine nor the bear's hide. Its proper food is 

 fur, but it sometimes also lives on wool. If it is 

 hungry, it will not scruple to make horse-hair its 

 food. Its domicile is not unfrequently formed of 

 this coarse material, which it moves about from place 



* REAUMUR, iii. p. 266. 



