INSECT-ARCHITECTURE. 



179 



with generalities, let us look at a few instructive examples 

 of insect-architecture, beginning with the simpler and end- 

 ing with the more complex. 



Perhaps the first impulse of an insect in endeavoring to 

 escape from some enemy is to burrow in the soil, or, if 

 aquatic in its habits, to bury itself in the mud at the bot- 

 tom of the pool or stream it inhabits. Such habits once 



FIG. 237. Oak-leaf Fio. 238. Oak-leaf rolled at the end. 



rolled sidewise. 



acquired and transmitted would lead a wood-eating or h-af- 

 gnawing insect to save its life by burrowing into and mining 

 leaves or bark, or even rolling over the edge of a leaf and 

 hiding under it; and such insects after a number of gen- 

 erations, meeting with success in the struggle for exist- 

 ence, without much doubt founded the insect-guilds, if we 

 may so style them, of masons, carpenters, and builders. 



When we consider how many kinds of leaf-rollers there 

 are among different orders of insects, we may perhaps 

 regard this as the readiest and most simple method of 

 forming a shelter. Among the caterpillars of the smaller 

 moths there are multitudes which roll up portions of the 

 leaf, whole leaves, or even bind several leaves together 

 with silken cords. How this is done may be seen by 



