80 
INTRODUCTION. 
required. But such a proceeding on the part of 
the n'orm would expose its body for a time with- 
out adequate protection, an accident of which it 
seems to have the utmost dread and guards against 
it with every precaution. It accordingly makes 
the rent extend only half way along, and when that 
fissure is filled up, forms another at the opposite 
end. There are generally two fissures made in each 
half, the one being opposite the other, so that the 
widening of the tube is effected by the insertion of 
four separate pieces. The colour of the garment is 
necessarily the same as that of the cloth which 
affords the raw material, and if the latter be party- 
coloured it exhibits a corresponding variety of hues. 
Tlie creature feeds on the same material with which 
it clothes itself. 
These may be called domestic moths, as they are 
found only in houses, where they live at the expense 
of the proprietor. Others, of more innoxious habits, 
frequent the ftiliage of trees, and fabricate, nnth still 
greater ingenuity, their little moveable tents from 
the thin membranes which form the outer coats of 
the leaves. Their proceedings were first accmntely 
described by Reaumur, whose accoimt we shall there- 
fore follow, using as nejirly as possible liis own words. 
One of the kinds which he mentions is found on 
the leaves of the ehn, and its method of working 
may be taken as an example of the plan followed 
by the whole tribe. It commences by mining its 
way into the substance of the leaf between the two 
enclosing membranes, consuming, as it proceeds, the 
