While the Carpet Moth only detaches from the various stuffs the wool it requires for clothing and nourishment, the Fur Moth causes much more considerable and more rapid damage. It cuts off all the hairs which are in its way right down to the skin; it seems as if it took a delight in cutting them off. That which is necessary for its wants is nothing in comparison to the great quantity of hair one sees fall off a skin on which it has established itself, when it is shaken. As it advances it cuts more thoroughly than a razor could all the hairs which are in its way.
The Hair Moth ([Fig. 297]) shows itself in great numbers in the perfect state, from the end of April till the beginning of June. They appear again in September, and generally stay behind cabinets and other pieces of furniture.
Fig. 297.—Hair Moth.
The caterpillar, which is cylindrical, white, destitute of hair, and striped with brown, lives principally in the hair with which furniture is stuffed, and sometimes in hair mattresses. When it has reached its full size, it abandons its abode, pierces through the stuff which covers the hair, and constructs for itself with this stuff a case of silk, open only towards the end where the head is. At the beginning of April it shuts its case, and changes itself into a chrysalis.
We can only here mention some of the phytophagous species, as the Cherry-tree Moth (Tinea cerasiella), the Hawthorn Moth (Tinea cratægella), the Burdock Moth (Tinea lapella), and the Rustic Moth (Tinea rusticella).
The caterpillars of the Œcophoræ resemble whitish worms. They attack the leaves, the blossoms, the bark, and certain parts of the fruit of trees. Some of these hollow out for themselves galleries in eating the fleshy part; others also make galleries, but only in the cuticle of the tree, or in the tenderest part of its bark. Some, again, shut themselves up in one or many leaves rolled like a trumpet, while others keep at the summits of plants, whose leaves they bind together in a parcel with threads. And, lastly, some devour the stones of fruits, such as that of the olive.
The moths of these caterpillars are very small, and generally of brilliant metallic colours, they are to be found in the woods, and still more in the orchards, from the beginning of June till the month of September.
The Œcophoræ are very slim and elegantly formed. Their anterior wings, which are very narrow, are often ornamented with silvery longitudinal lines, the posterior wings exactly resembling two feathers.