CLOTHES MOTH. 611 



took offence at our disturbing it one day, or whether it did not 

 find sufficient food in the body of the ghost-moth, we know not ; 

 but it left its cork house, and travelled about eighteen inches, 

 selected the ' old lady ' moth (Mormo mav/rd), one of the largest 

 insects in the drawer, and built a new apartment, composed 

 partly of cork as before, and partly of bits clipped out of the 

 moth's wings. 



"We have seen these caterpillars form their habitations of 

 every sort of insect, from a butterfly to a beetle, and the soft, 

 feathery wings of moths answer their purpose very well ; but 

 when they fall in with such hard materials as the musk-beetle, 

 or the large scolopendra of the West Indies, they find some diffi- 

 culty in the building. 



" When the structure is finished, the insect deems itself secure 

 to feed on the materials of the cloth, or other animal matter 

 within its reach, provided it is dry and free from fat or grease, 

 which E^aumur found it would not touch. For building, it 

 always selects the straightest and loosest pieces of wool ; but for 

 food it prefers the shortest and most compact ; and to procure 

 these, it eats into the body of the stuff, rejecting the pile or nap, 

 which it necessarily cuts across at the origin and permits to fall, 

 leaving it threadbare, as if it had been much worn." 



From the account which has just been given, it is evident that 

 the caterpillar must be able to turn completely round in its case, 

 and in order to enable it to perform this evolution, the tube is 

 much wider in the middle than at the ends. 



The instinct of the parent moth enables it to discover with 

 astonishing certainty any substance which may afford food to its 

 future young. Stuffed birds suffer terribly from the moth, be- 

 cause the arsenical soap with which the skins are preserved does 

 not extend its poisonous influence to the feathers. I have known 

 whole cases of birds to be destroyed by the moth, all the feathers 

 being eaten, and nothing left but the bare skins. 



Even the most deadly poison, corrosive sublimate, is not 

 effectual, unless it settles on every feather. There is now before 

 me a stuffed golden-eye duck, preserved by myself, the close 

 plumage of which has partially thrown off the poisoned solution, 

 and has consequently admitted the moth in small patches of 

 feathers, especially about the neck. There is also in my collec- 

 tion a Kaffir shield, made of an ox-hide, which has been washed 



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