392 
STRANGE DWELLINGS. 
the abdomen being in ordinary proportion to the thorax and 
head. But, when she has been fairly installed in her office 
her abdomen begins to enlarge, until it becomes so enormous 
that she is totally unable to move, and therefore, her enforced 
prison is so far from being a hardship, that it is a necessary 
protection for her huge and soft body, which is several hundred 
times larger than that of her mate. Large indeed she must be, 
as she is calculated to produce, on the average, rather more 
than thirty million eggs. 
Figs. 3, 3 show the appearance of the royal cell when split 
open longitudinally, the recess which contains the queen being 
seen nearly in the centre. All the drawings are taken from 
specimens in the British Museum, and in the cell which is 
here figured, the outline of the queen is quite perceptible, having 
been impressed on the interior of the cell. The mode by which 
it is enlarged is also shown, a further enlargement having been 
begun, but cut short by the demolition of the nest. The cells 
vary very much in size, probably in accordance with the 
dimensions of the enclosed queen. I have seen them as large 
as cocoa-nuts, and of an extraordinary weight, the greater por- 
tion of the mass being solid clay. 
There are many insects whose habitations are peculiarly 
annoying to mankind, and yet are extremely interesting to those 
who take an interest in the workings of instinct. Chief among 
these insects is the well-known Clothes Moth. There are 
several allied species which popularly go by this name, but the 
most plentiful is that which bears the scientific title of Tinea 
vestianella. These 'destructive little creatures are proverbially 
injurious to clothes, especially if the garments be made of wool 
or furs, vegetable fabrics being not to their taste. Some species 
affect dried insects, and are in consequence extremely hateful 
to the entomologist ; while their ravages on furs and feathers, 
and even on leather itself, render them the dread of those 
who, like myself, possess collections of natural history or 
ethnology. 
In their winged state, the moths themselves do no direct 
