CLOTHES MOTHS 343 



wool of one colour to fur or wool of another colour, and 

 in this way the industrious caterpillar is made to work 

 in different coloured fibre in successive enlargements of 

 his case, so that it becomes a Joseph's coat of many 

 colours. 



An interesting fact about the movable case made by 

 the clothes moth caterpillar is that the nearest thing in 

 nature to it is the case made by the aquatic grubs or 

 caterpillars of another kind of insects the caddis-worms 

 ("case-worms") which are common in ponds and streams. 

 They show extraordinary powers in making their cases so 

 that they balance nicely in the water, as the animal crawls 

 along on the bottom of a pool, with his head and six legs 

 emerging from one end of the case. Caddis-worms are of 

 various kinds or species, and some attach to their cases 

 little broken sticks, others minute empty snail-shells, 

 others the fine green threads of water-plants. The 

 caddis-worm becomes changed into a delicate fly, with 

 transparent wings, just as the clothes-grub becomes 

 changed into a moth and it is an interesting fact that 

 the caddis-flies, though they are classed with the May- 

 flies and such net-winged insects, and not with the moths 

 and butterflies (the Lepidoptera, or insects with wings 

 covered with dust-like scales, which give the colour and 

 patterns to the wings), yet agree with moths in having 

 some scales on the wings and with one kind of minute 

 moth, namely, the clothes moth, in having grubs which 

 make movable cases. 



The clothes moth caterpillar was known to the 

 Romans by the name Tinea, and is described with 

 correct detail by the Roman naturalist Pliny. Modern 

 naturalists have accepted this name Tinea as that of the 

 genus to which the clothes moth belongs. There are 

 thirty different British species of Tinea, of which four are 

 guilty of attacking animal fabric, and so causing trouble 



