43 
and stuffiest of cottages as well as in disused bird’s nests. Tinea 
fuscipunctella, T. pellionella and Trichophaga tapetzella are also of 
frequent occurrence in houses. All these species will probably 
continue in the district as long as cloth, horse hair, and feathers are 
made use of in our dwellings. 
With regard to the clothes moths it is next to imposible to keep 
them out of the house. Their chief mode of entrance is through the 
open windows after dark. They will not, however, do any great 
amount of damage so long as the materials on which they feed are not 
neglected. If a garment is left hanging in the corner for months at a 
time, or in a room with doors and windows closed for weeks together, 
or materials even shut up in a box for years, the clothes moths will 
probably find these things out and play havoc with them, so that the 
last state of those things will be worse than the first. The best way 
to prevent attacks is to constantly move or shake things, and to expose 
them to as much air and light, especially sunlight, as possible. Clothes 
moths love the dark and the stagnant air. If it be necessary to leave 
cloth or furs packed away for months in cupboards, it is an excellent 
plan to wrap them up in unbleached linen as one would wrap up a parcel 
in brown paper. 
This will not avail if the garment has already been attacked and 
moths, in any stage, are wrapped up with it. It is surprising in how 
small a space the clothes moths will flourish, and they will continue 
for several generations feeding in a small box till all is reduced to dust, 
even the remains of the last parents and all the ancestors. They are 
emblems of destruction and seem to point to the idea that things not 
used by their owners must be made use of by others. 
Besides the clothes moths there are two other species that will 
probably continue to haunt our houses. Though they feed on a great 
variety of substances, such as seeds, dry plants, pupae, etc., they do not 
habitually, if ever, attack clothes. Endrosis lacteella, a grey speckled 
moth with a snow-white head, may be found any time throughout the 
year in houses and on trunks of trees. I have specimens bred from an 
old tits nest and also from the rind of a stilton cheese. The other 
species is Borlcliausenia pseudospretella , a much larger moth, brown 
with black spots. Perhaps its chief characteristic is the agility it 
displays. Most moths fly towards the light, but this one runs towards 
the darkest corner, if disturbed, and as the wings are laid very flatly 
in repose, it is easily able to hide itself in any cracks or crannies. 
Of the 162 species hitherto observed, 52 per cent, have been found 
in the larval state; 135 species occur so regularly that they may be 
considered as residents of the district, while 27 species have either been 
taken once only or not in sufficient numbers to entitle them to qualify 
as regular inhabitants. 
Although the district becomes every year less and less suitable as a 
habitat for micro-lepidoptera, I still believe that there are yet a great 
many species in the district that have so far escaped detection, and 
that we shall, in the future, be able to add many species to the list of 
“ Tineina ” of South-West London. 
