230 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



wool, whether cloth or stuff, comes amiss to them. 

 There are five species described by Linne, which are 

 more or less engaged in this work : Tinea vestianella, 

 tapetzella, pellionella, sarcitella, and MelloneUa. Of the 

 first we have no particular history, except that it de- 

 stroys garments in the summer ; but of the others Reau- 

 mur has given a complete one. T. tapetzella, or the ta- 

 pestry moth, not uncommon in our houses, is most in- 

 jurious to the lining of carriages, which are more exposed 

 to the air than the furniture of our apartments. These 

 do not construct a moveable habitation like the common 

 species, but, eating their way in the thickness of the 

 cloth, weave themselves silken galleries in which they 

 reside, and which they render close and warm by cover- 

 ing them with some of the eroded wool 3 . T. pellionella 

 is a most destructive insect, and ladies have often to de- 

 plore the ravages which it commits in their valuable furs, 

 whether made up into muffs or tippets — it pays no more 

 respect to the regal ermine than to the woollen habili- 

 ments of the poor ; its proper food, indeed, being hair, 

 though it devours both wool and fur. This species, if 

 hard pressed by hunger, will even eat horse-hair, and 

 make its habitation, a moveable house or case, in which 

 it travels from place to place, of this untractable mate- 

 rial. These little creatures will shave the hair from a 

 skin as neatly and closely as if a razor had been em- 

 ployed 5 . — The most natural food of the next species, 

 T. sarcitella, is wool ; but in case of necessity it will eat 

 fur and hair. To woollen cloths or stuffs it often does 

 incredible injury, especially if they are not kept dry and 



* Reaum. iii. 266. i> Ibid. 59. 



