Sources : Clothes-moth
Pliny the Elder [1st century CE] (Natural History, Book 11, 34; 11, 41): [11, 34] [Clothes-moths] also breed in one kind of clothing especially, woolen made from sheep that have been killed by wolves. [Book 11, 41] Similarly, dust in woolens and in clothes breeds moths, especially if a spider is shut up with them; for being thirsty and sucking up all the moisture it increases the dryness. - [Rackham translation]
Isidore of Seville [7th century CE] (Etymologies, Book 12, 5:11): Moth-worms [tinea] are clothes vermin, so named because they hold fast [tenere], and they settle in right at the place they eat away. Whence also the word ‘tenacious’ [pertinax] for someone who keeps at the same thing again and again. - [Barney, Lewis, et. al. translation]
Thomas of Cantimpré [circa 1200-1272 CE] (Liber de natura rerum, Worms 9.48): The clothes-moth [tynea] is a clothes worm, as Isidore says, so called because holds fast [tenere] to clothes. This worm is generated from the polluted air in the clothes and from the damp moisture that is in the wool, and then it sits and eats the cloth. - [Badke translation/paraphrase]
Bartholomaeus Anglicus [13th century CE] (Liber de proprietatibus rerum, Book18.104): A Moth is called Tinea, & is a worme of clothes, as Isid[ore] saith, & hath that name, for he holdeth the cloth that hée is in, untill he be within, and eateth and gnaweth it, and is gendered of corruption of cloth, when the cloath is too long in presse and thicke aire, and is not blowen with winde, neither unfolded in pure aire. And this worme eateth ye utter part of the cloath, and wasteth it so slily, that it is not knowen ere it be harmed, and though he be a sensible beast, yet he hideth himselfe within the cloth, that unneth he is séene. Mothes hate & flye bitter things and bitter smells, and come not lightly in the cloth yt is sprong with such things, and therefore leaves of the Laurel trée, of Ceders and of Cipres, and other such, put among cloathes in hutches, saveth clothes and also books from corruption and eating of mothes, as Constantine saieth. Also a manner scab of the head is called Tinea, for it holdeth and cleaveth fast to the skinne. Thereof looke before libr. 5. De capitis infirmitate. - [Batman]