. Homes without hands : being a description of the habitations of animals, classed according to their principle of construction . Animals. COCOONS. 177 America is popularly called the tumble-bug—the latter inappro- priate monosyllable being indiscriminately used for every insect that even looks like a beetle. There is also in the British Museum one enormous cocoon made of clay. It is almost the size of a six-pounder cannon-ball, with walls of such thickness that the hollow in its centre is bare- ly the size of a crab-apple. The weight of this cocoon is enor- mous, when the size of its inmate i
. Homes without hands : being a description of the habitations of animals, classed according to their principle of construction . Animals. COCOONS. 177 America is popularly called the tumble-bug—the latter inappro- priate monosyllable being indiscriminately used for every insect that even looks like a beetle. There is also in the British Museum one enormous cocoon made of clay. It is almost the size of a six-pounder cannon-ball, with walls of such thickness that the hollow in its centre is bare- ly the size of a crab-apple. The weight of this cocoon is enor- mous, when the size of its inmate is considered, and that so com- paratively small a beetle should construct and roll so large a ball seems almost incredible. The beetle belongs to the genus Copris. There is the cocoon of another species of Copris, but in this case the walls are very thin, and the entire ball would go into the hol- low of that which has just been described. A British beetle, Qeotrupes vernalis, also makes a cocoon about the size of that which has just been mentioned. It is made of mixed clay and cow-dung, and specimens may be seen in the Cocoons of Scarabasus and Goliath. Perhaps the most extraordinary of these cocoons is that which is represented in the illustration. This is made by one of the gigantic beetles of the tropics. The insect which made it has no English name, but is scientifically called Goliathus Drurii. This wonderful cocoon is as large as a swan's egg, and, as may be seen by reference to the illustration, has very thin walls in proportion to its size. It is strengthened by a remarkable belt, which runs around its centre, exactly like that of the bullet which is used for the two-grooved rifle. How the belt is formed is perfectly un- known, as is its use, unless the strengthening of the walls be its only object. I have carefully examined the cocoon itself, and M. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced fo
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Keywords: ., bookauthorwo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectanimals
