Si Of the white Moth * 
wooden beam, or other body to their mind, into whic&t 
they gnaw holes with their {harp fangs, capable of con¬ 
cealing them; and there envelope themfelves in a cover¬ 
ing of their own fpinning ; where they foon become me- 
tamorphofed into dark coloured aurelias d , and continue 
fo all the winter unadtive and harmlefs ; but about April 
or May, as the weather grows warm, they are trans¬ 
formed into moths of the kind before defcribed. Then 
are they to be feen in great numbers taking little flights, 
or creeping along the walls. In the fly-ftate they eat 
nothing, therefore are not mifchievous, but foon copulate 
and lay eggs, not larger than a grain of fand, in Ihape 
like thofe of an hen, each female fixty or feventy, which 
by means of a tube at the end of her tail, reprefented by 
tig. 142. as it appears in the microfcope, Ihe thrufcs or 
infmuates into the little wrinkles, hollows, or crevices of 
the corn , where in about fixteen days they hatch, and 
then the plague begins ; for the minute worms or mag¬ 
gots immediately perforate the grain where they are 
hatched upon, eat out the very heart of it, and with their 
v/ebs cement other grains thereto, w 7 hich they likewife 
fcoop out and devour, leaving nothing but hulk and duff, 
and fuch a quantity of their dung, as Ihew r s them to be 
more voracious infeeds than the weevil, hereafter to be 
defcribed. 
Thefe worms or maggots may be kept all the winter' 
in glafs tubes, that are flopped at each end with a corle 
and wax, having firft a bit of a very fmall glafs capil¬ 
lary tube, put through the cork to give them air. In 
this manner Mr. Leeuwenhoek confined fome of thefe 
moths with a few grains of corn, and faw them lay their 
eggs in the crevices of the corn ; alfo in this manner he 
obferved all the above particulars. 
Thefe 
4 Leeuwenhoek’s E.xp. & Contemp, EpifLyi. 
