200 IN^DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



probably tell you a different story, and enlarge upon the 

 trouble and pains it costs her to guard those under her care 

 against the ravages of the moths. Upon further inquiry you 

 would find that nothing made of 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, Laverna sarcitella, and Gal- 

 leria mellonella. Of the first we have no particular history, 

 except that it destroys garments in the summer ; but of the 

 others Reaumur has given a complete one. T. tapetzella, or 

 the tapestry 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 covering them with some 

 of the eroded wool.i T. pellionella is a most destructive 

 insect ; and ladies have often to deplore 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 habiliments 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 

 material. These little creatures will shave the hair from a 

 skin as neatly and closely as if a razor had been employed.^ 

 The most natural food of the next species, L. sarcitella, 

 is wool ; but in case of necessity it will eat fur and hair. To 

 woollen cloths or stuffs it often does incredible injury, espe- 

 cially if they are not kept dry and well aired. ^ Of the de- 

 vastation committed by Galleria mellonella in our bee-hives I 

 have before given you an account : to this I must here add, 

 that if it cannot come at wax, it will content itself with 

 woollen cloth, leather, or even paper.* Mr. Curtis found the 

 grub of a beetle {Ptinus fur) in an old coat, which it de- 



1 Reaum. iii. 266. 



2 Ibid. 59. 



3 Ibid. 42. 



4 Ibid. 257. 



