2G2 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



Another lepidopterous larva, but of a much larger size and different 

 genus, the case of which is preserved in the cabinet of the late President 

 of the Linnean Society, who pointed it out to me, employs the spines ap- 

 parently of some species of Mimosa, which are ranged side by side, so as 

 to form a very elegant flutetl cylinder. A similar arrangement of [)ieces of 

 small twigs is observable in the habitation of the females^ of the larvse 

 of a moth referred by Von Scheven to Bomhyx vcslita F. (which Ochsen- 

 heimer regards as synonymous with Psyche graminelln) ; while P. Viciella 

 of the Wiener Vcrzeichniss covers itself with short portions of the stems of 

 grasses placed transversely, and united by means of silk into a five or 

 six-sided case. The habitation of a third larva of the same family, 

 described and figured by Reaumur (P. Graminella Ochsenh., just named), 

 is composed of squarish pieces of the leaves of grass fastened only at 

 one end, and overwrapping each other like the tiles of a house ; and 

 that of another noticed by the same author, of portions of the smallest 

 twigs of broom arranged on the same plan.*^ Indeed the larvae of the whole 

 of this tribe of moths, now separated into a distinct genus (Psyche Schrank, 

 Ochsenh., Fumca Haworth), but which, according to Germar, needs fur- 

 ther subdivision, reside in cases or sacks (whence they are called by the 

 Germans Sachfrager) composed of silk, and fragments of grass, bark, &c.^ 



The larvse of a small beetle (JJlytra longiniana^ reside in oviform cases, 

 apparently of a calcareous or earthy substance, joined by a gummy 

 cement, and covered with red hairs, the origin of which Hlibner, who first 

 discovered them, could not account for ; and from the observations of 

 Amstein and the French translator of Fuessly's Archives, it seems pro- 

 bable that the larvse of all the species oi Clijtra, and, according to Zschorn, 

 at least of one species of Cri/ptocephalus (C. duodecimpunctatus), live in 

 moveable cases*; as do also the larvse of Chlanujs, a splendid Brazilian 

 genus of the same family, and those of the equally brilliant genus Lampro- 

 soma, forming them of tlieir excrement, which in the former assume a sin- 

 gular appearance, from a very large and conical hollow mantle fitted to the 

 mouth of the case.^ The larvae of a species of Lininius (L.cciietis) inhabit 

 a fixed case made of particles of stone or sand; and the same materials 

 proliably serve for the abode of tlie other species of this and those of 

 allied genera which reside under water. 



Wax is the principal substance employed in the habitations <.f the larvae 

 before mentioned, occasionally so destructive to bee-hives. These insidi- 

 ous depredators, which are mentioned by Aristotle^, tying together, with 

 silk, grains of wax (which, and not honey, forms their food), construct 



1 The larvje of the males intermix with the pieces of twigs, which are less closely 

 and regularly arranged, bits of dried leaves and other light materials. See the ex- 

 cellent elucidation of the historj' of this tribe, whose mode of generation is so sin- 

 gular, by Von Scheven, in the Naturforscher, Stk. xx. 61., &c. ; also a valuable 

 paper bv Dr. Zincken genannt Sommer, in Germar's Mag.fiir Ent. i. .19 — 40. 



2 Reaum. iii. 148, 141). n. 11. f. 10, 11. 



3 In the hotter regions of the globe, this group is replaced by the gigantic Oike- 

 tici, seA'eral species of which have been figured by the late L. Guilding in the 

 Transactions of the Linnean Societij. The cases of sorae<t)f these insects exhibit an 

 extraordinary degree of instinct in their construction, and are of a much larger 

 size than a hen's egg. (See Westw. Mod. Class. Ins. ii. 388.) 



* Fuessly, Archiv. 53. t. 31. Germar's Mag.fur Ent. i. 136. 

 5 Westwood in Traits. Ent. Sac. Lond. iii. proc. xxviii. 

 s Aristot. Hist. Anim. 1. viii. c. 27. 



