SPECIES INJURIOUS TO WOOLEN GOODS, ETC. 67 



Dr. Riley reared it in conjunction with the angoumois grain moth (Si to 

 troga cerealella) from grain, it being apparent that its larvae had sub- 

 sisted on dead specimens of the grain moth. It is very apt to attack 

 large Lepidoptera on the spreading board, and has, in fact, been carried 

 through several generations on dried specimens of moths. 



Its general animal feeding habit is further indicated by the interest- 

 ing case reported by Dr. J. 0. Merrill, IT. S. A., who submitted a sample 

 can of beef meal which had been rejected as "weevilly.'" The damage 

 proved to be due to the larva 1 of Tineola biselliella and goes to sub- 

 stantiate the theory already advanced that clothes moths were scaven- 

 gers in tjieir earliest association with man. 



The larva of this moth constructs no case, but spins a silky or more 

 properly cobwebby path wherever it goes. When full grown it builds 

 a cocoon of silk, intermixed with bits of wool, resembling somewhat the 

 case of pellionella, but more irregular in outline. Within this it under- 

 goes its transformation to the chrysalis, and the moth in emerging 

 leaves its pupal shell projecting 

 out of the cocoon, as with the pre- 

 ceding species. 



The tapestry moth (Triehophaga 

 tapetzella Linn.) (fig. 27) is rare in 

 the United States. It is much 

 larger than either of the other two 

 species, measuring three-fourths 

 inch in expanse of wings, and is Fl<; ' *•-*****«* *w* 



1 ° 7 enlarged (after Riley). 



more striking in coloration. The 



head is white, the basal third of the forewings black, with the exterior 

 two-thirds of a creamy white, more or less obscured on the middle with 

 gray; the hind wings are pale gray. 



It normally affects rather coarser and heavier cloths than the smaller 

 species and is more apt to occur in carpets, horse blankets, and tapes- 

 tries than in the finer and thinner woolen fabrics. It also affects felting, 

 furs, and skins, and is a common source of damage to the woolen 

 upholstering of carriages, being rather more apt to occur in carriage 

 houses and barns than indwelling houses. Its larva enters directly into 

 the material which it infests, constructing burrows or galleries lined more 

 or less completely with silk. Within these galleries it is protected and 

 concealed during its larval lite, and later undergoes its transformations 

 without other protection than that afforded by the gallery. The dam 

 age is due as much or more to its burrowing as to the actual amount of 

 the material consumed for food. 



One of the parasites reared from peUionella (Apanteles carpatus Say) 

 has also been reared from this species :it St. Louis, Mo. 



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