66 



PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS, 



were noticed to have scaled a 15-foot wall to attach their cases in an 

 angle of the cornice of the ceiling. It undergoes its transformations 

 to the chrysalis within the larval case, and under normal conditions the 

 moth emerges three weeks later, the chrysalis having previously worked 

 partly out of the larval case to facilitate the escape of the moth. The 

 latter has an irregular flight and can also run rapidly. It has a dis- 

 tinct aversion to light and usually promptly conceals itself in garments 

 or crevices whenever it is frightened from its resting place. The moths 

 are comparatively short lived, not long surviving the dej)osition of their 

 eggs for a new generation of destructive larvai. The eggs are minute^ 

 not easily visible to the naked eye, and are commonly placed directly 

 on the material which is to furnish the larvie with food. In some cases 

 they may be deposited in the crevices of trunks or boxes, through which 

 the newly hatched larvie enter. 



In working in feathers this insect occasionally causes a felting very 



similar to that produced by the dermestid beetle Attagenns picetis (]). 61). 



The protection afforded by the seclusion of this insect in houses does 



not prevent its having insect ene- 

 mies, and at least two hymenop- 

 terous parasites have been reared 

 in this country from its larval 

 cases. These are Hyper acmns 

 tinew Eiley MS., and Apanteles 

 earpaius Say, both reared from 

 si)ecimens collected in Michigan. 

 The webbing or Southern 

 clothes moth [Tineola hiselUella 

 Hummel) (fig. 26) is the more 

 abundant and injurious species in 

 the latitude of Wasliington and 

 southward. It also occurs farther north, though in somewhat less 

 numbers than the preceding species. It jn^esents two annual broods 

 even in the Northern States, the first api^earing in June from eggs 

 deposited in ]May, and the second in August and September. It is 

 about the size of pelHonel'la. The fore wings are, however, uniformly 

 pale ocherous, without markings or spots. Its larva feeds on a large 

 variety of animal substances — woolens, hair, feathers, furs, and in Eng- 

 land it has even been observed to feed on cobwebs in the corners of 

 rooms, and in confinement has been successfully reared on this rather 

 dainty food substance. The report that it feeds on dried plants in 

 herbaria is rather open to question, as its other recorded food materials 

 are all of animal origin. 



Frequently this si)ecies is a very troublesome i^est in museums, par- 

 ticularly in collections of the larger moths. Prof. F. M. Webster, of 

 Wooster, Ohio, has had some of his large moths badly riddled by its 

 larvse, and Dr. Hagen also records it as feeding on insect collections. 



Fig. 2&.—Tirnfvla bit.tUidUi . uiutk. larva, cocoon 

 and empty pupa-skin— enlargea (after Kiley) 



