9 



Monopis imella, Hb. — Head rust-coloured. Forewings brown with 

 a hyaline spot and a very narrow yellowish line along the costa. 



This species is rather too uncommon to be called a house moth, but 

 from what Heyden says of it, if it were commoner it would probably 

 be a nuisance. Heyden states (" Stett. Ent. Zeit.," i860, p. 118) he 

 found numbers of the larvae in an old felt shoe, lying in a field near 

 Frankfort, in November. The larvae lived gregariously in crowded 

 tubes. Some of the moths developed in a few days, and the rest in 

 the May following. I have never taken the insect. 



M. rusticella, Hb. — Head rust-coloured. Forewings purplish-brown, 

 usually much mottled with dark brown. More variegated than 

 M. imella, and wants the pale costal streak. A common species 

 which I have often taken in the house, but I have no personal 

 knowledge of any damage done by the larvae. There is a notice in 

 the " Entomologist's Annual" for 1857, p. 121, of this species being 

 freely bred from half-rotten carpet. 



Trichopliaga tapetzella, L. — This is the carpet moth, though 

 nothing to do with those elegant Geometers which bear that name. 

 It is easily identified by its rough white head and parti-coloured 

 wings. The basal half of the forewings is deep brown, and the 

 posterior half pale grey with darker mottlings. I have never had the 

 larva of this species, but from various accounts it seems an extra pest. 

 Stainton says (" Insecta Britannica," p. 25, 1854): "Others, like 

 T. tapetzella, construct covered galleries of the substance on which 

 they are feeding, thus destroying much more than they actually con- 

 sume." On p. 28 he further remarks: "Frequently occurring in 

 carriages, the larva feeding on the lining." 



Tinea pellionella, L. — Head generally more or less fulvous. Fore- 

 wings ochreous-brown, fairly uniform in colour, with a conspicuous 

 dark brown spot beyond the middle of the wing. Apical cilia not 

 barred. This species is frequent in rooms and feeds on carpets and 

 feathers, and constructs a portable case in which it finally pupates. 

 I have taken the larva climbing up a drawing-room wall with a case 

 made of the carpet below, and have also bred it from the nest of a 

 blue tit. 



Tinea fuscipunctella, Hw. — Like T. pellionella, but much darker, 

 and more spotted, and with three or four dark dashes in the cilia at 

 the apex of the forewing. This is very common in houses, where I 

 have frequently taken it on curtains or walls, but I have no indict- 

 ment against it, though the strongest suspicions. 



Tineola biselliella, Hummel. — Head ochreous or rust-coloured, 

 forewings pale ochreous, varying in intensity, unspotted. Very 

 common in the interior of houses, where it breeds abundantly at the 

 expense of the householder. Once, at Sandown, I was asked to sit 

 on a yellow sofa, and as I seated myself sundry bits of the cover fell 

 off towards the floor, but, curiously, instead of reaching it they 

 returned to the sofa. They were the imagines of this species, which 

 were in dozens! In 1906 I had a number of larvae (and cocoons) 



