464 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



commoded by the long hairs which surround them, as we 

 are by walking amongst high grass ; and accordingly, 

 marching scythe in hand, with their teeth they cut out a 

 smooth road, from time to time reposing themselves, and 

 anchoring their little case with small silken cables. 



If, as I hope, you are induced to investigate the man- 

 ners of these insects, you have but to leave an old coat 

 for a few months undisturbed in a dark closet, and you 

 may be pretty certain of meeting with an abundant 

 colony. 



Not merely wool or hair, but another substance analo- 

 gous to one employed in our dress, is adopted for their 

 clothing by other insects. The larva of a fly which lives 

 on the seeds of willows, makes itself a very beautiful case 

 of their cottony down, not only impervious to wet and 

 cold, but serving, if accidentally blown into the water, 

 which from the situation of these trees frequently hap- 

 pens, as a buoyant little barge which is wafted safely to 

 the shore ^. 



The habitations which we have hitherto been con- 

 sidering, are formed by larvae that live on land, but 

 others equally remarkable are constructed by aquatic 

 species, the larvae of the various Phryganece L., a tribe 

 of four-winged insects which an ordinary observer would 

 call moths, but which are even of a distinct order {Tri- 

 choptera), not having their wings covered by the scales 

 which adorn the lepidopterous race. If you are desirous 

 of examining the insects to which I am alluding, you 

 have only to place yourself by the side of a clear and 

 shallow pool of water, and you cannot fail to observe at 

 the bottom little oblong moving masses resembling pieces 

 " Reaum. iii. 130. 



