<h2 id="c4">THE CLOTHES MOTH AND ITS METHODS.</h2>
<p>Though it has incurred the bitter condemnation
of all housewives, the clothes
moth is quite an interesting little body
from the naturalist’s point of view. The
species known in the United States bears
the long name Pellionella. Its larva constructs
a case for its occupancy. The
moths themselves are very small and well
fitted for making their way through minute
holes and chinks. The mother insect
deposits her eggs in or near such material
as will be best adapted for food for
the young. Further, she distributes
them so that there may be a plentiful
supply and enough room for each.</p>
<p>When one of the scattered family issues
from the egg its first care is to provide
itself with a home, or more correctly
speaking, a dress. Having decided
upon a proper site it cuts out a filament
of cloth and places it on a line with its
body. Another is cut and placed parallel
with the first. The two are then bound
together by a few threads of silk from
the caterpillar’s own body. The same
process is repeated with other hairs until
the little creature has made a fabric of
some thickness. This it extends until it
is large enough to cover its whole body.
It chooses the longer threads for the outside
and finishes the inner side by a closely
woven tapestry of silk. The dress being
complete, the larva begins to feed on
the material of the cloth.</p>
<p>When it outgrows its clothes, which
happens in the course of time, it proceeds
to enlarge them. With the dexterity of a
tailor it slits the coat, or case, on the two
opposite sides, and inserts two pieces of
the requisite size. All this is managed
without the least exposure of its body.
Neither side being slit all at once. Concealed
in its movable silk lined roll it
spends the summer plying its sharp
reaping hooks amid the harvest of tapestry.</p>
<p>In the fall it ceases to eat, fixes its
habitation, and lies torpid during the winter.
With the early spring it changes to
a chrysalis within its case, and in about
twenty days thereafter it emerges as a
winged moth, which flies about in the
evening until it has found a mate and is
ready to lay eggs.</p>
<p><span class="lr"><span class="sc">Louise Jamison.</span></span></p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_198">198</div>
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