INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 231 



well aired*. Of the devastation committed by T. Mel- 

 lonella in our bee-hives I have before given you an ac- 

 count : to this I must here add, that if it cannot come at 

 wax, it will content itself with woollen cloth, leather, or 

 even paper b . Mr. Curtis found the grub of a beetle 

 {Ptinus Fur, L.) in an old coat, which it devoured, 

 making holes and channels in it; and another insect of 

 the same order {Dermcstes Pellio, L.), Linne tells us, 

 will sometimes entirely strip a fur garment of its hair c . 

 A small beetle of the Capricorn tribe (Callidium j>yg- 

 mceum, F.) I have good reason to believe devours leather, 

 since I have found it abundant in old shoes. 



Next to our garments our houses and buildings, which 

 shelter us and our property from the inclemency and inju- 

 ries of the atmosphere, are of consequence to us : yet 

 these, solid and substantial as they appear, are not se- 

 cure from the attack of insects ; and even our furniture 

 often suffers from them. A great part of our comfort 

 within doors depends upon our apartments being kept 

 clean and neat. Spiders by their webs, which they sus- 

 pend in every angle, and flies by their excrements, which 

 they scatter indiscriminately upon every thing, interfere 

 with this comfort, and add much to the business of our 

 servants. Even ants will sometimes plant their colonies 

 in our kitchens, (I have known the horse-ant, Formica 

 riifa, L., do this,) and are not easily expelled. Those 

 of Sierra Leone, as I was once informed by the learned 

 Professor Afzelius, make their way by millions through 

 the houses. They resolutely pursue a straight course ; and 

 neither buildings nor rivers, even though myriads perish 



a Rcaum. iii. 42. * Ibid. 257. c Amcen. Acad. iii. 346. 



