THE HOUSE-BUILDER MOTH. 303 



employing itself in the great object of its life, that of seeking a 

 mate. 



In ordinary cases, to find a mate seems to be no difficult task, 

 but the House-builder Moth has no ordinary obstacles to over- 

 come. The female never leaves her cell, for she would be more 

 helpless as a moth than as a caterpillar. Among the British 

 moths we have several species in which the females are wingless, 

 but at all events they do look like moths which have been de- 

 prived of wings, and are able to move about with tolerable free- 

 dom. Of these wingless females, the common Vaporer Moth (Or- 

 gyia antiqua) is a familiar example, its fat, rounded abdomen 

 and little truncated rudiments of wings being known to all col- 

 lectors. 



But the female House-builder Moth is as utterly helpless a be- 

 ing as can well be conceived. She has not the least vestige of 

 wings, and but the smallest indications of legs or antennas. None 

 but an entomologist would take her for a lepidopterous insect, or 

 even for an insect at all, for she looks like a fat, down-covered 

 grub, with very feeble limbs, which can scarcely support the body, 

 and with antennas that merely consist of a few rounded joints, 

 entirely unlike the beautiful feathered forms which decorate the 

 male. 



So utterly unlike a moth is this creature, that our most skillful 

 entomologists are much perplexed as to the position which the 

 insect ought to occupy. Mr. "Westwood states that they are " the 

 most imperfect of all lepidopterous insects, and even less favored 

 ' than their larva, which they considerably resemble ;" while Mr. 

 Newman expresses still stronger opinions, and asserts that the 

 Oiketici ought to be removed from the lepidoptera altogether, and 

 placed with the Phryganeidas, or caddis flies, whose dwellings are 

 wonderfully similar to those of the Oiketici. 



The Oriental idea that feminine delicacy is only to be main- 

 tained by concealing the face, seems to have been borrowed from 

 the House-builder Moth, which is a perfect model of female excel- 

 lence, according to Oriental notions, always staying at home, al- 

 ways hiding her face, and always producing enormous families. 

 Perhaps the male may be attracted to the female by some pecul- 

 iar instinct, for the eyes can have little to do with the discovery, 

 she being so closely shut up in her house, and never leaving it 

 till the day of her death. Many British insects, such as the well- 

 known oak-egger moth, have this curious power, and the male has 



