Fig. 295.—Larva of a Tinea walking.
At the same time that the larva becomes longer it becomes stouter. Very soon its garment will be too narrow for it. Will it enlarge its old coat, or will it make itself a new one? Réaumur discovered that it preferred to widen its old coat.
That is what our naturalist saw when he placed larvæ with blue cases, for instance, upon stuff of a red colour. The bands which extended in straight lines from one end of the case to the other, showed the part that had been added.
"From watching them at different times," says this admirable observer, "I find that the means which they employ is precisely that to which we should have had recourse in a similar case. We know of no other way of widening a sheath, a case of any stuff that we find too narrow, than to split it right up and to let in a piece of the proper size between the parts which we have thus divided; we should let in a piece on each side if the shape of the tube seemed to require it. This is also exactly what our larvæ do, with an extra, and which with them is a necessary, precaution, so as not to remain exposed while they are working at the enlargement of their garment. Instead of two pieces, which should each be as long as their case, they let in four, each of which is not longer than half the length of their case; and so they never split up more than half the length of the case at the same time, which has enough stuff left in it to keep it together while this opening is being filled up."
The wools of our stuffs furnish the moths not only with clothing, but also with food. Their excrements are little grains, which are the same colour as the wool they have eaten.
Fig. 296.
Case of the Moth attached to a piece of cloth.
When they are full grown, and the time approaches for their metamorphosis, the larvæ abandon their food, and establish themselves in the angles of walls. They creep up to the ceilings and suspend themselves to them by one extremity of their tube. The two ends of the tube are now closed by a silken tissue ([Fig. 296]). The larva thus enclosed very soon changes its form; it becomes a chrysalis; then at the end of about three weeks it is set free as a moth.
The Fur or Skin Moth works like the carpet moth: it makes itself a case of the same form, and constructs it in the same manner. Only in this case its covering is made of a sort of felt resembling that of which our hats are made.