of employment, we cut the end of his case half off. Two or three days after, he had mended it from the inside, drawing the two edges together by silken threads, and, though he had not touched the outside, yet so neatly were the two parts joined together that we had to search for some time, with a lens, to find the scar.

To keep our friend busy during the cold, cheerless weather, for it was in mid-winter, we next cut a third of the case off entirely. Nothing daunted, the little fellow bustled about, drew in a mass of the woolly fibres, filling up the whole mouth of his den, and began to build on afresh, and from the inside, so that the new-made portion was smaller than the rest of the case. The creature worked very slowly, and the addition was left in a rough, unfinished state.

We could easily spare these voracious little worms hairs enough to serve as food, and to afford material for the construction of their paltry cases; but that restless spirit that ever urges on all beings endowed with life and the power of motion, never forsakes the young Clothes-moth for a moment. He will not be forced to drag his heavy case over rough hairs and furzy wool, hence he cuts his way through with those keen jaws. Thus, the more he travels, the more mischief he does.

After taking his fill of this sort of life he changes to a pupa (Fig. 3), and soon appears as one of those delicate, tiny, but richly variegated moths that fly in such numbers from early in the spring until the fall.

Very many do not recognize these moths in their perfect stage, so small are they, and vent their wrath on those great millers that fly around lamps in warm summer evenings. It need scarcely be said that these large millers are utterly guiltless of any attempts upon our

wardrobes, they expend their attacks in a more open form on our gardens and orchards.

We will give a more careful description of the Clothesmoth which was found in its different stages June 12th in a mass of cotton-wool. The larva is white, with a tolerably plump body, which tapers slightly towards the tail, while the head is much of the color of gum-copal. The rings of the body are thickened above, especially on the thoracic ones, by two transverse thickened folds. It is one-fifth of an inch long.

The body of the chrysalis, or pupa, is considerably curved, with the head smooth and rounded. The long antennæ, together with the hind legs, which are folded along the breast, reach to the tip of the hind body, on the upper surface of each ring of which is a short transverse row of minute spines, which aid the chrysalis in moving towards the mouth of its case, just before the moth appears. At first the chrysalis is whitish, but just before the exclusion of the moth becomes of the color of varnish.

When about to cast its pupa-skin, the skin splits open on the back, and the perfect insect glides out. The act is so quickly over with, that the observer has to look sharp to observe the different steps in the operation.

Fig. 4.

Our common Clothes-moth, Tinea flavifrontella (Fig. 4), is of an uniform light-buff color, with a silky iridescent lustre, the hind wings and abdomen being a little paler. The head is thickly tufted with hairs and is a little tawny, and the upper side of the densely hirsute feelers (palpi) is dusky. The wings are long and narrow, with the most beautiful and delicate long silken fringe, which increases in length towards the base of the wing.

They begin to fly in May, and last all through the sea

son, fluttering with a noiseless, stealthy flight in our apartments, and laying their eggs in our woollens.

There are several allied species which have much the same habits, except that they do not all construct cases, but eat carpets, clothing, articles of food, grain, etc., and objects of natural history.

Successive broods of the Clothes-moth appear through the summer. In the autumn they cease eating, retire within their cases, and early in spring assume the chrysalis state.

Careful housewives are not much afflicted with these pests. The slovenly and thriftless are overrun with them. Early in June woollens and furs should be carefully dusted, shaken, and beaten. Dr. T. W. Harris states that "powdered black pepper, strewed under the edge of carpets, is said to repel moths. Sheets of paper sprinkled with spirits of turpentine, camphor in coarse powder, leaves of tobacco, or shavings of Russia leather, should be placed among the clothes when they are laid aside for the summer; and furs and other small articles can be kept by being sewed in bags with bits of camphor wood, red cedar, or of Spanish cedar; while the cloth lining of carriages can be secured forever from the attacks of moths by being washed or sponged on both sides with a solution of the corrosive sublimate of mercury in alcohol, made just strong enough not to leave a white stain on a black feather." The moths can be most readily killed by pouring benzine among them, though its use must be much restricted from the disagreeable odor which remains. The recent experiments made with Carbolic acid, however, convinces us that this will soon take the place of all other substances as a preventive and destroyer of noxious insects.

REVIEWS.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHLOEÖN (Ephemera) DIMIDIATUM.

By Sir John Lubbock. Parts I. II. From the Transactions of the Linnæan Society, London. Vol. XXV. 4to, 1866.

One of the most interesting discoveries in entomology is the fact that the May-fly, or Shad-fly, during its development from the time of leaving the egg up to maturity, moults its skin nineteen times before leaving the water, and once afterwards on arriving at the winged state.

All the books teach that there are three distinct states of the insect's life after hatching from the egg, namely, the larva, pupa, and imago; but there are many species belonging to different suborders of the six-footed insects, in which these stages graduate almost insensibly into each other. The terms larva and pupa are but relative, and not fixed and absolute. In the beetle or butterfly, the grub or caterpillar certainly seems very distinct from the chrysalis. But we have in the collection of the Essex Institute a series illustrating the transformations of the caterpillar into the pupa or chrysalis, which show several successive changes of form most remarkable and interesting to the student. There is also a gradual change of form from the pupa to the imago or perfect state, which most observers have not noticed. The writer has shown* that the Humble-bee, before reaching the winged state, moults at least ten times, and probably a greater number. The bee-state is reached by a very gradual change of form. The newly hatched larva differs but slightly in appearance from the mature embryo just before hatching. The worm-like larva merges gradually into the pupa. Scarcely does the larva stop eating and gain its full size, when, on removing the loosening skin, the tegument of the halfformed pupa can be detected beneath, with the rudiments of the mouth-parts, antennæ, and wings, together with the ovipositor, which have begun to assume the shape of the same parts in the mature bee. They are, however, rudely shaped and but partially formed. So also the pupa merges into the bee state by insensible gradations, so that it is almost impossible to say absolutely which is pupa and which imago, from the inspection of specimens before us. Thus metamorphosis is but a growth and evolution of parts, intensified, so to speak, at certain intervals to adapt it to certain modes or conditions of life. In those

*Observations on the Development and Position of the Hymenoptera, with notes on the Morphology of Insects. By A. S. Packard, jr. From the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History. 1867, 8vo.

insects which are active in the preparatory stages, and have the same habits in maturity as in the larva and pupa stage, such as the grasshopper and its allies, the changes are slow, and the metamorphosis slightly marked. In the butterfly and bee, however, whose life is so distinct in the perfect state, from the caterpillar or grub, the changes are rapid, though gradual, and strongly marked. They are not perhaps due so much to immediate physical agencies, as to the plan of life originally marked out for the insect by the creative mind.

In the present state of science we would prefer to think that structure is correlated to the mode of life, rather than that it is dependent on physical agencies. We feel scarcely prepared to believe with our author that the "actual form" of the caterpillar "is mainly due to the influence of the conditions in which it lives."*

We must look deeper than the agency of physical causes in the production of the various forms of life. In endeavoring to solve the problem of life and its manifestations, man may advance in knowledge without actually grasping the truth.

The theories now in vogue, suggested by Lamarck or Darwin, or as modified by other naturalists, though so stimulating to scientific thought, are yet not satisfactory, and do not go to the bottom of the matter. We must still wait patiently, and meanwhile observe, experiment, and reflect, and thus continue to question nature until she yields a willing reply.

We extract the following interesting remarks on the metamorphoses of insects, with the author's general conclusions:

The larva of insects are generally regarded as being nothing more than immature states, as stages in the development of the egg into the imago; and this might more especially appear to be the case with those insects in which the larvæ offer a general resemblance in form and structure (excepting of course so far as relates to the wings) to the perfect insects. Nevertheless, we see that this would be a very incomplete view of the case. The larva and pupa undergo changes which have no relation to the form which they will ultimately assume. With a general tendency, as regards size and the production of wings, to this goal, there are combined other changes bearing reference only to their existing wants and condition.

Nor is there in this, I think, anything which need surprise us. External circumstances act on the insect in its preparatory states as well as in its perfect condition. Those who believe that animals are susceptible of great, though gradual, change through the influence of external conditions, whether acting, as Mr. Darwin has suggested, through natural selection, or in any other manner, will see no reason why these changes should be confined to the mature animal. And it is evident that creatures which, like the majority of insects, live during different periods of their existence in very different circumstances, may undergo considerable changes in their larval organization, in consequence of forces acting on their larval condition, not, indeed, without affecting, but certainly without affecting, to any corresponding extent, their ultimate form.

We may now pass to the second part of the subject, that is to say, the apparently sud

*"The caterpillar owes its difference from the butterfly to the early stage at which it leaves the egg; but its actual form is mainly due to the influence of the condition in which it lives." Part II. p. 112.