298 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



same materials probably serve for the abode of the other species of this 

 and those of allied genera which reside under water* 



Wax is the principal substance employed in the habitations of the larvae 

 before mentioned, occasionally so destructive to bee-hives. These insidi- 

 ous depredators, which are mentioned by Aristotle^ tying together, with 

 silk, grains of wax (which, and not honey, forms their food), construct 

 galleries of a considerable length ; and thus concealed from the sight, and 

 protected from the stings of the armed people whom they have attacked, 

 push their mines into the very heart of the fortress, and pursue their 

 robberies in perfect safety.^ 



As many of the habitations which I have been describing fit the body 

 of the insects as close as a coat, they might, perhaps with more propriety, 

 be called clothes. This is certainly the most appropriate designation of 

 the abodes of some species of Tinect (the clothes' moths), which not only 

 cover themselves with a coat, but employ the very same material in its 

 composition as we do in ours, forming it of wool or hair curiously felted 

 together. Like us, they are born naked ; but not, like us, helpless at that 

 period : scarcely have they breathed before they begin to clothe them- 

 selves ; thus contradicting Dr. Parley's assertion, that " the human animal 

 is the only one which is naked, and the only one which can clothe itself^ : " 

 and, wisely inattentive to change of fashion, the same suit serves them 

 from their birth to mature age. The shape of their dress is adapted to 

 that of their body — a cylindrical case open at both ends. The stuff of 

 which it is composed is the manufacture of the larva of the moth (Tinea), 

 which incorporates wool or hair, artfully cut from our clothes or furniture, 

 with silk drawn from its own mouth, into a warm and thick tissue ; and as 

 this would not be soft enough for its tender skin, it also lines the inside of 

 its coat with a layer of pure silk. Since this suit of clothes during the 

 earliest age of the insect accurately fits its body, you will readily conceive 

 that it will frequently require enlarging. This the little occupant accom- 

 plishes as dexterously as any tailor. If the^case merely requires length- 

 enin<T, the task is easy. All that is needful is to add a new ring of hair 

 or wool and silk to each end. But to enlarge it in width is not so simple 

 an affair. Yet it sets to work precisely as we should, slitting the case on 

 the two opposite sides, and tlien adroitly inserting between them two pieces 

 of the requisite size. It does not, however, cut open the case from one 

 end to the other at once : the sides would separate too far asunder, and 

 the insect be left naked. It therefore first cuts each side about half way 

 down, and then, after having filled up the fissure, proceeds to cut the 

 remaining half; so that, in fact, four enlargements are made, and four 

 separate pieces inserted. The color of the habit is always the same as 

 that of the stuff from which it is taken. Thus, if its original color be 

 blue, and the insect previously to enlarging it be put upon red cloth, the 

 circles at the end and two stripes down the middle will be red. If placed 

 alternately upon cloths of different hues, its dress will be parti-colored, 

 like that of a Harlequin. The injury occasioned to us by these insects is 

 not confined to the quantity of materials consumed in clothing and feeding 

 themselves. In moving from place to place they seem to be as much 



I Aristot. Hist. Anim. 1. viii. c. 27.* » Reaum. iii. Mem. 8. 



» mt. Theol. 230. 



