THE CLOTHES MOTH. 
67 
till only fragments were left. Quantities of little grey cases or 
cocoons showed that what had gained access to the feathers 
was moth. 
As I was then specially interested in the subject of domestic 
natural history, the living inmates of our houses, the cases were 
exactly what I wished to study. Accordingly, I made a collec- 
tion of them and covered them with a glass shade until I should 
find leisure to observe them more closely. Returning from 
some other occupation I found the small cases in active motion. 
A brown head and part of a white grub’s body appeared at one 
end, and each insect, like the caddis worm, was dragging its 
house after it, and seemed able to crawl rapidly about. By 
gently pressing the tail-end of a cocoon I made the grub come 
out and leave its case behind, so that I could examine it more 
particularly. 
The case was evidently made of shreds of the feathers on 
which the grub had been feeding, and was lined with fine white 
silk. There are understood to be about thirty-one species of 
the genus Tinea in this country; of these many, when in the 
larva state, inhabit fungi or rotten wood. One beautiful species 
is found abundantly in granaries; its larva lives upon corn, 
and resides in a case formed of wheat grains connected together 
by silken threads. Many of the species of Tineina, the great 
group to which the genus Tinea belongs, are leaf-miners and 
form those white streaks we may often see upon bramble, 
honeysuckle, and strawberry leaves. The grubs of another 
kind may be found in Scotland inhabiting ants’ nests, and even 
in a coal-mine, near Glasgow, Tineee have been found in abun- 
dance. 
The furrier has cause to dread the ravages of Tinea pellionella, 
which feeds on feathers and fur, and is no respecter of priceless 
sables and ermines. This insect makes its case of atoms of fur 
cut to the same length, and it works so insidiously that there is 
no outward sign of its evil doings until little tufts of fur begin to 
fall off, and then it is too late to save our valued garments. 
They are sure, sooner or later, to prove hopelessly destroyed. 
Stuffed birds and animals can only be preserved from this 
annoying pest by being soaked in a strong solution of corrosive 
sublimate or some other poison. That this is effectual I have 
proved by the safe preservation of groups of stuffed birds, which 
have hung against a wall exposed to the air without protection 
of any kind for the last twenty-five years ; these are as fresh and 
bright in plumage as when they were first obtained. 
This fur moth is perhaps the best known species in our 
houses ; it is a small, yellowish grey insect with pale brown 
spots on the wings. This is, I believe, the species of which I 
have secured the larvae. Fur and feathers are alike its staple 
diet, and it is easily distinguished from other kinds by a dark 
brown mark on the second segment of the grub, which mark I 
could discern by a magnifying glass. 
