MOTH-CATERPILLARS. 



219 



from the egg, its first care is to provide itself with a 

 domicile, which indeed seems no less indespensable 

 to it than food; for, like all caterpillars that feed 

 under cover, it will not eat while it remains vinpro- 

 tected. Its mode of building is very similar to that 

 which is employed by other caterpillars that make 

 use of extraneous materials. The foundation or 

 frame-work is made of silk secreted by itself, and 

 into this it interweaves portions of the material 

 upon which it feeds. It is said by Bingley, that 

 " after having spun a fine coating of silk immediately 

 aroimd its body, it cuts the filaments of the wool or 

 fur close by the thread of the cloth, or by the skin, 

 with its teeth, which act in the manner of scissors, 

 into convenient lengths, and applies the bits, one by 

 one, with great dexterity, to the outside of its silken 

 case."* This statement, however, is erroneous, 

 and inconsistent with the proceedings not only of 

 the clothes moth, but of every caterpillar that con- 

 structs a covering. None of these build from within 

 outwards, but uniformly commence with the exterior 

 wall, and finish by lining the interior with the finest 

 materials. Reaumur, however, found that the newly- 

 hatched caterpillars lived at first in a case of silk. 



We have repeatedly witnessed the proceedings of 

 these insects from the very foundation of their struc- 

 tures; and, at the moment of writing this, we turned 

 out one from the carcase of an " old lady moth" 

 {Mormo maiira, Ochsenheim,) in our cabinet, and 

 placed it on a desk covered with green cloth, where 

 it might find materials for constructing another 

 dwelling. It wandered about for half a day before 

 it began its operations; but it did not, as is asserted 

 by Bonnet, and Kirby and Spence, "in moving from 

 place to place, seem to be as much incommoded by 



* .\nimal Biography, vol. iii. p. 330, 3d ed. 



