OH 



XL — On the Architectural Instincts of Melicerta ringens, an Animal 

 of the Class Rotifera. By P. H. Gosse, Esq. 



(Read January 16, 1850). 



Among all the aspects in which we regard the inferior animals, 

 perhaps there is not one more fascinating than that in which we see 

 them reflecting, as in a mirror, those actions in man which are the 

 result of reason or experience. The architectural instinct of animals, 

 in particular, by which they are impelled to form structures for the 

 protection of themselves or their progeny, affords some of the highest 

 treats which the naturalist knows. We hear with curiosity that the 

 man-like orangs of West Africa and of Borneo construct rude huts 

 among the branches of trees, in which they dwell ; and the elaborate 

 masonry of the beaver has been a theme of admiration for ages. 

 The nests of birds, the waxen cells of bees, and the papery edifices 

 of wasps, render these the most interesting of animals, as exhibiting 

 in beautiful prominence parental foresight and care, as well as con- 

 structive skill. But there is another class of animal structures of so 

 ambiguous a character that we scarcely know how to name them ; 

 we are in doubt whether the ingenious artificer should be denomi- 

 nated a mason or a tailor; whether he has made a house or a gar- 

 ment. I will not speak of the investing shell of the snail, or the 

 valves of the oyster, nor yet of the tubes of the beautiful organ-pipe 

 coral (Tubipora musica), for these are deposited secretions rather 

 than constructions. The larvae of the clothes-moths (Tineadce), how- 

 ever, cut off the fibres of our textile fabrics, and weave them into a 

 case of cloth ; the caddis-worms, so fainiliar to anglers (the larvse of 

 the Phryganeadce), collect little stones, shells and other extraneous 

 bodies lying at the bottoms of streams, and, fixing them with a glu- 

 tinous fluid from their mouths, form them into curious cylindrical 

 cases ; and I have, in America, seen the caterpillar of a moth (of the 

 genus Oiketicus), which cuts off the slender stems of plants and the 

 foot-stalks of leaves, and, dividing them into short lengths, builds up 

 piecemeal, by the aid of its silk, a tube, around its body. These 

 edifices all serve their owners for tents, into which they can retire, 

 or which they can leave at will ; while by the nature of their lining, 



