190 HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



The clothes moths are all introduced species, having 

 come to us from European countries along with our fore- 

 fathers. It is certain that they have existed in this coun- 

 try for many years, for Peter Kalm, a professor in a Swedish 

 university, in a quaint account written in 1771 (3d. ed.) 

 of his travels in North America, tells us that " Moths, or 

 Tinece, which eat the clothes, are likewise abundant 

 here. I have seen cloth, worsted gloves, and other 

 woolen stuffs, which have hung all the summer locked 

 up in a shrine, and had not been taken care of, quite 

 cut through by these worms, so that whole pieces fell 

 out." This description w r ould fit conditions that are 

 often found to-day quite as well as a century and a 

 half ago. 



Not only have clothes moths been long known and 

 recognized in America, but they have been familiar insects 

 to the human race for thousands of years. They are 

 referred to in the Book of Job in the well-known passage, 

 " And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment, that 

 is moth-eaten." The Romans were well acquainted with 

 insects that destroyed clothing, and they applied the name 

 Tinea to the caterpillar of any clothes moth, no matter 

 what species, that was found injuring clothes. Pliny 

 speaks of a Tinea with its case and relates how it changes to 

 a chrysalis from which the moth finally issues. Scientists 

 have, therefore, adopted the name, Tineidce, for the family 

 containing the clothes moths and many other closely 

 related moths, all of which are very small, although the 

 name of the family has no connection with our word tiny. 

 The moths belonging to the family Tineidse are all very 

 small and have narrow wings fringed with very long, 

 slender scales. Although small, some of them are really 



