HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 263 
galleries of a considerable length; and thus concealed from the sight, and — 
protected from the stings of the armed people whom they have attacked, 
push their mines into the very heart of the fortress, and pursue their rob- 
beries in perfect safety. 
As many of the habitations which I have been describing fit the body of 
the insects as close as a coat, they might perhaps with more propriety, be 
called clothes. This is certainly the most appropriate designation of the 
abodes of some species of Tinew (the clothes’ moths), which not only 
cover themselves with a coat, but employ the very same material in its 
composition as we do in ours, forming it of wool or hair curiously felted 
together. Like us, they are born naked ; but not, like us, helpless at that 
period: scarcely have they breathed before they begin to clothe themselves 5 
thus contradicting Dr. Paley’s assertion, that “ the human animal is the only 
one which is naked, and the only one which can clothe itself*:” and, 
wisely inattentive to change of fashion, the same suit serves them from 
their birth to mature age. The shape of their dress is adapted to that of 
their body—a cylindrical case open at both ends. The stuff of which it 
is composed is the manufacture of the larva of the moth (Zinea), which 
incorporates wool or hair, artfully cut from our clothes or furniture, with 
silk drawn from its own mouth, into a warm and thick tissue ; and as this 
would not be soft enough for its tender skin, it also lines the inside of its 
coat with a layer of pure silk. Since this suit of clothes during the 
earliest age of the insect accurately fits its body, you will readily conceive 
that it will frequently require enlarging. This the little occupant accom- 
plishes as dexterously as any tailor. If the case merely requires lengthen- 
ing, the task is easy. All that is needful is to add a new ring of hair or 
wool and silk to each end. But to enlarge it in width is not so simple an 
affair, Yet it sets to work precisely as we should, slitting the case on the 
two opposite sides, and then adroitly inserting between them two pieces of 
the requisite size. It does not, however, cut open the case from one end to 
the other at once: the sides would separate too: far asunder, and the insect 
be left naked. It therefore first cuts each side about half way down, and 
then, after having filled up the fissure, proceeds to cut the remaining half ; 
so that, in fact, four enlargements are made, and four separate pieces in- 
serted. The colour of the habit is always the same as that of the stuff 
from which it is taken. Thus, if its original colour be blue, and the insect 
previously to enlarging it be put upon red cloth, the circles at the end and 
two stripes down the middle will be red. If placed alternately upon cloths 
of different hues, its dress will be parti-coloured, like that of a. Harlequin. 
The injury occasioned to us by these insects is not confined to the quantity 
of materials consumed in clothing and feeding themselves. In moving from 
place to place they seem to be as much incommoded by the long hairs 
which surround them as we are by walking amongst high grass ; and ac- 
cordingly, marching scythe in hand, with their teeth they cut out a smooth 
road, from time to time reposing themselves, and anchoring their little case 
with small silken cables. 
If, as Lhope, you are induced to investigate the manners of these in- 
Sects, you have but to leave an old coat for a few months undisturbed ina 
pis closet, and you may. be pretty certain of meeting with an abundant 
colony. 
1 Reaum. iii, mém. & 2 Nat. Theol. 230. 
84 
