172 



INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



ville fritillary {Melitea cinxia)^ which is very scarce 

 in this country. 



Ziczac Caterpillar and Nest- 



Although a colony of these caterpillars is not nu- 

 merous, seldom amounting to a hundred individuals, 

 the place which they have selected is not hard to dis- 

 cover. Their abode may be seen in the meadow in 

 form of a tult of herbage covered with a white web, 

 which may readily be mistaken, at first view, for that 

 of a spider, but closer inspection soon corrects this 

 notion. It is, in fact, a sort of common tent, in 

 which the whole brood lives, eats, and undergoes the 

 usual transformations. The shape ^of this tent, for 



