ATTACKS OF INSECTS UPON PROPERTY. 21 



larvae of some of which are ordinarily termed bots. In hke 

 manner our poultry and our bees are subject to the attacks 

 of various insects, of which tlie Death's-head moth and the 

 Galleria are examples. 



Death's-head Moth. 



It is not, however, to ourselves and li^'ing animals that 

 the ravages of insects are confined, almost every species of 

 property being in some measure or other liable to be injured 

 by them. Our clothes, and other woollen productions, are 

 devoured by the larvae of various species of clothes-moths, 

 which not only feed thereon, but also form for themselves 

 coverings of the same materials ; and the richest furs are 

 subject to the attacks of a similar insect ; whilst our mu- 

 seums are equally ravaged by the Dermestes and Anthreni. 

 Our furniture is often completely destroyed by the timber- 

 boring beetles and death-watches {Anohium); and some 

 species of white ants, in warm climates, are so destructive in 

 this respect, that if a chair or table be suffered to remain for 

 a time in the same situation, the interior substance mil be 

 completely consumed, nothing remaining but the outside 

 shell, which the insect has the instinct to leave entire. The 

 last-named insects may indeed be regarded as amongst the 

 most destructive of our insect enemies, since they scarcely 

 leave any article untouched. Ants also are, in warm ch- 



