INTRODUCTION. 
73 
and clothing of the body, the caterpillars of moths 
arc adapted to live in a great variety of situations 
and circumstances. By far the greater proportion 
are to be found on the foliage of plants ; many 
occur only in the interior of the stem or branches ; 
not a few burrow in the earth to consume roots ; 
and a small number are inhabitants of the waters. 
Neither are they less varied in the nature of their 
food. Few kinds of vegetable produce are exempted 
from their ravages, and imhappUy their taste both 
for these and various sorts of finits, often coincides 
with our own. Com is not only exposed to their 
depredations while in the blade, but even after it 
has been laid up in supposed security, the grain is 
sometimes converted into a tenement for a small 
worm, the offspring of a moth, which speedily con- 
sumes all but the outer covering. They eat uith 
avidity the most bitter plants which our fields 
produce, as well as those replete with a caustic and 
corrosive juice, which on that account are left 
uutouched by other animals. The stings of the 
nettle, and the prickles of various other plants, are 
so far from warding off their attack, that these 
plants seem to be the resort of a greater number of 
caterpillars than those that are without any such 
defence. "Wool, feathers, hair, and many other 
substances which set at defiance the digestive powers 
of other anhmJs, are well known to fomi a favourite 
repast to these anomalous creatures, and as if no 
limits were prescribed to their voracity, some of 
