Natural history of insects : comprising their architecture, transformations, senses, food, habits--collection, preservation and arrangement . m their homes, andobserved them detach grain after grain from a pieceof stone, binding each into the wall of their buildingwith silk, till the cell acquired the requisite magnitude,the whole operation taking about twenty-four hoursof continued labour. M. de la Voye mentions small * JR. 228 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. granular bodies of a greenish colour, placed irregu-larly on the exterior of the structure, which he callseggs; but we agree with Reaumur in think
Natural history of insects : comprising their architecture, transformations, senses, food, habits--collection, preservation and arrangement . m their homes, andobserved them detach grain after grain from a pieceof stone, binding each into the wall of their buildingwith silk, till the cell acquired the requisite magnitude,the whole operation taking about twenty-four hoursof continued labour. M. de la Voye mentions small * JR. 228 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. granular bodies of a greenish colour, placed irregu-larly on the exterior of the structure, which he callseggs; but we agree with Reaumur in thinking itmore probable that they are small fragments of mossor lichen intermixed with the stone: in fact, we haveascertained that they are so.* When these little architects prepare for theirchange into chrysalides before becoming moths, theyattach their tents securely to the stone over whichthey have hitherto rambled, by spinmng a strongmooring of silk, so as not only to fill up every inter-stice between the main entrance of the tent and thestone, but also weaving a close, thick curtain of thesame material, to shut up the entire Tents and Caterpillars, both of their natural size and magnified. It is usual for insects which form similar struc-tures, to issue, when they assume the winged state,from the broader end of their habitation; but ourlittle stone-mason proceeds in a different manner. Itleaves open the apex of the cone from the first, forthe purpose of ejecting its excrements, and latterlyit enlarges this opening a little, to allow of a freeexit when it acquires wings; taking care, however,to spin over it a canopy of silk, as a temporary pro-tection, which it can afterwards burst through with- * J. R. STONE-MASON CATERPILLARS. 229 out difficulty. The moth itself is very much like thecommon clothes-moth in form, but is of a o-ildedbronze colour, and considerably smaller. In the same locality, M. de Maupertuis found anumerous brood of small caterpillars, which employ
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookidnaturalhistoryof01bos, booksubjectinsects
