488 
LEPIDOPTERA. 
signifying to gnaw or to eat.* Nearly all tlie moth-worms, 
or caterpillars belonging to the tribe of Tineas, gnaw holes or 
winding paths in the substances wherein they live. Some 
of the fragments they devour, and.the rest they fasten to¬ 
gether, with a few silken threads, so as to shelter or clothe 
their tender bodies. With these materials some of them 
make cylindrical burrows, through which they can move 
freely, and carry on the destruction unseen; and others, 
with the same, shape for themselves various kinds of pods 
or cases, large enough to cover their bodies entirely when 
they are at rest, and so light that they can bear them about 
on their backs, as snails do their shells. Some moth-worms 
are dark-colored; but most of them are of a dirty white 
color, with a brownish head, and a brown spot on the top 
of the first ring. They are either wholly naked, or have 
only a few short hairs thinly scattered over the surface of 
their bodies. They generally have sixteen legs. Some, 
however, want the first pair of prop-legs, having only four¬ 
teen in all. They undergo their transformations in the 
burrows or cases that have served them for habitations, 
either with or without the additional coverino; of a cocoon 
spun within their places of abode. The chrysalids are of 
a brown color, and are rather more slender than those of 
other moths. In the Avinged state they vary greatly both 
in form and color. They all agree, however, in having the 
wings long and narrow, and folded or Avrapped around the 
body, more or less closely, when they are at rest. Their 
antennae are bristle-shaped, and very rarely feathered in 
either sex. Some of them have four feelers, others only 
two; and the spiral tongue is short. Most of these Avinged 
moths are very small; indeed, the least of the Lepidoptera 
belong to this tribe. They have been divided by some nat¬ 
uralists into two, and by others into three groups, namely, 
CramhidoBy YponomeutadoB^ and Tineadce^ the differences be- 
* From the Gothic maten, to gnaw, and from matjan, to eat, we have the Anglo- 
Saxon word rnoth^ as now used, and maiha, a maggot. 
