424 THE CLOTHES-MOTH. 
But the case is the most remarkable feature in the his- 
tory of this caterpillar. Hardly has the helpless, tiny 
worm broken the egg, previously laid in some old gar- 
ment of fur, or wool, or perhaps in the hair-cloth of a 
sofa, when it proceeds to make a shelter by cutting the 
woolly fibres or soft hairs up into bits, which it places 
at each end in successive layers, and, joining them to- 
gether by silken threads, constructs -a cylindrical tube 
(Fig. 2) of thick, warm felt, lined within with the finest 
silk the tiny worm can spin. The case is hardly round, 
but flattened slightly in the middle, and contracted a 
little just before each end, both of which are always 
kept open. The case before us is of a stone-gray color, 
with a black stripe along the middle, and with rings of 
the same color round each opening. Had the caterpillar 
fed on blue or yellow cloth, the case would, of course, 
have been of those colors. Other cases, made by larve 
which had been eating “cotton wool,” were quite irregular 
in form, and covered loosely with bits of cotton thread, 
which the little tailor had not trimmed off. 
Days go by. A vigorous course of dieting on its feast 
of wool has given stature to our hero. His case has 
grown uncomfortably small. Shall he leave it and make 
another?—-No housewife is more prudent and saving. 
Out come those scissor-jaws, and, lo! a fearful rent along 
each side of one end of the case. Two wedge-shaped 
‘ patches mend the breach ,—caterpillar retires for a mo- 
ment; reappears at the other end; scissors once more 
pulled out; two rents to be filled up by two more patches 
or gores, and our caterpillar once more breathes freer, 
laughs and grows fat upon horse hair and lamb’s wool. 
Tn ae way he enlarges his case till he stops growing. 
Our caterpillar seeming to be full-grown, and hence out 
