DIRECT INJURIES FROM MOTHS. (J 1 



bales of merchandise to dust without their external 

 appearance or shape being altered ; and it is only 

 when they are handled that the merchant perceives 

 the wreck of his property.* 



To check the superabundance of species which 

 would, in the course of time, overrun the earth, it 

 has been wisely ordered, that one species shall prey 

 upon another. The destructive larvse of the Bombyx 

 villica, and that of other species of moths, become a 

 prey to the larva of various species of the Ichneu- 

 mon Fly, which deposits its egg within the body of 

 this caterpillar, ^vhere it remains, preys upon its 

 interior, changes to the chrysalis condition, and 

 emerges when it has assumed the perfect or imago 

 state. The Colosoma sycophanta, an animal of the 

 Beetle kind, often takes up its station in the nests 

 of the Bombyx processionea, (the Processionary 

 Moth,) and other moths, and sometimes gluts itself 

 so much with devouring these caterpillars, that it 

 is nearly ready to burst. 



• Ulloa, i. 67. 



