150 NATURAL HISTORY. 



wings pale grayish-brown ; anterior marbled whitish, 

 yellow-brown, and black. In May they deposit their 

 diminutive eggs in the grains of different cereals. In a 

 week after, the little yellowish larva makes its appear- 

 ance, at first feeding singly on the grain in which it was 

 hatched, but afterwards a number spin themselves to- 

 gether in a mass, constructing a silken web, behind which 

 they conceal themselves, closing up the opening with 

 excrementitious matter. About the end of August, they 

 crawl into the crevices of the posts or beams of the gran- 

 ary, where they envelope themselves in their cocoons. 



The species known as the white corn worm is very 

 destructive ; the usual method of getting rid of these 

 vermin, is to turn over the grain frequently, and sprinkle 

 it with salt. 



The Clothes Moth (tinea sarcitella). six lines in 

 length, with silver-gray wings, thread-like antennae, and 

 two short probosci. As soon as the little larvae emerge 

 from the egg, they begin to clothe themselves, selecting 

 furs or woolens for that purpose. Thus enveloped, it 

 may be supposed that the body outgrows the garment, 

 and such really is the case ; but, instead of deserting the 

 old tube and forming a new one, they lengthen it at one 

 end as they grow, and slit it in order to increase its dia- 

 meter, by adding another piece. If formed, at first, of 

 gray cloth, the little cocoon will be gray, if enlarged 

 with the wool of red, the patch will retain the color of 

 its original. The wool of clothes and hair of furs not 

 only serves these little destructives for a covering, but 

 also for food, which they prepare by some singular pro- 

 cess of softening, peculiar to themselves, and thus destroy 

 whatever they harbor in. "When fully grown, they 

 undergo their transformation, mostly in chinks or cracks 



