394 



HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



stone or sand ; and the same materials probably serve for the 

 abode of the other species of this and those of allied genera 

 which reside under water. 



Wax is the principal substance employed in the habitations 

 of the larvae before mentioned, occasionally so destructive to 

 bee-hives. These insidious depredators, which are mentioned 

 by Aristotle ^, tying together, with silk, grains of wax (which, 

 and not honey, forms their food), construct 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 robberies 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 cer- 

 tainly the most appropriate designation of the abodes of some 

 species of Tinece (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; thus con- 

 tradicting 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 ( Tinea), 

 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. 



1 Aristot. Hist. Anim. 1. viii. c. 27. 

 3 Nat, Theol 230. 



2 Reaum. iii. mem. 8. 



