Natural history of insects : comprising their architecture, transformations, senses, food, habits--collection, preservation and arrangement . ing been observedwhere the tree was covered with bark. The inge-nuity of the little architect consisted in scooping itscell almost to the very surface of the wood, leavingonly an exterior covering of unbroken wood, as thinas writing paper. Previous, therefore, to the chry-salis making its way through this feeble barrier, itcould not have been suspected that an insect waslodged under the smooth wood. We observed morethan one of these in the act of breakin
Natural history of insects : comprising their architecture, transformations, senses, food, habits--collection, preservation and arrangement . ing been observedwhere the tree was covered with bark. The inge-nuity of the little architect consisted in scooping itscell almost to the very surface of the wood, leavingonly an exterior covering of unbroken wood, as thinas writing paper. Previous, therefore, to the chry-salis making its way through this feeble barrier, itcould not have been suspected that an insect waslodged under the smooth wood. We observed morethan one of these in the act of breaking through thiscovering, within which there is besides a round move-able lid of a sort of brown wax.* Another architect caterpillar, frequently to be metwith in July on the leaves of the willow and thepoplar, is, in the fly state, called the Puss-Moth(Centra vinula). The caterpillar is produced frombrown-coloured shining eggs, about the size of apins head, which are deposited—one, two, ormore together—on the upper surface of a the course of six or eight weeks (during whichtime it casts its skin thrice) it arrives at its full. Eggs ff tnr Puis-^Mctfi. J. K. PUSS-MOTH. 193 growth, when it is about as thick, and nearly aslong, as a mans thumb, and begins to preparfe astructure in which the pupa may sleep securelyduring the winter. As we have, oftener than once,seen this little architect at work, from the foundationtill the completion of its edifice, we are thereby ena-bled to give the details of the process. The puss, it may be remarked, does not dependfor protection on the hole of a tree, or the shelter ofan overhanging branch, but upon the solidity andstrength of the fabric which it rears. The materialit commonly uses is the bark of the tree upon whichthe cell is constructed; but when this cannot be pro-cured, it is contented to employ whatever analogousmaterials may be within reach. One which we hadshut up in a box substituted the marble paperit was lined with, for b
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookidnaturalhistoryof01bos, booksubjectinsects
