contrast to the _Macro-lepidoptera_ (or big moths and butterflies). Consequently they have become the favourite study of a few enthusiasts, who are known as Micro-lepidopterists, and have a wide but not uninteresting field of exploration all to themselves. The _Micro-lepidoptera_ include, besides the _Tineina_, a group of less minute though small moths, with narrow, fringed wings, amongst which are the window moth, the milk moth, the tabby moth, the meal moth, and the grease moth. Though the clothes moths may well be described as “tiny” moths, yet the word _Tinea_, as applied to them, has no such origin, but is the name given to the destructive grub by the Romans. The same word has unfortunately been applied by medical men and botanists to a vegetable parasite which causes a skin disease (ringworm) resulting in baldness. The _Tinea calvans_ of the doctors has only this in common with the moth _Tinea pellionella_—that it causes hair to disappear and baldness to ensue; but the vegetable parasite attacks the hair on a living man’s head, the caterpillar that on his fur coat. XXXVIII STONE AND WOOD BORERS Boring into wood is a favourite proceeding on the part of many small creatures, insects, shrimps, and ship-worms, by which they not only acquire nourishment, but at the same time penetrate more and more deeply into safe quarters and concealment. It is not surprising that it has become the necessary and regular mode of life of a host of small animals, and consequently that man who wants wood in good sound blocks and planks for his various constructions is a good deal put out by the voracity of the wood-boring community. To some extent he has given up the task of checking their proceedings, and now uses metal where he formerly used wood, but that only applies to a limited field. Wood is still the great material of rough construction, and the main substance used in fittings and furniture.