218 



INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



moths; in the same way as a person once stung by a 

 scorpion will never afterwards be stung by a bee, or a 

 wasp, or a hornet! Rhasis again says, that cantha- 

 rides suspended in a house drive away moths; and, 

 he adds, that they will not touch anything wrapped in 

 a lion's skin! — the poor little insects, says Reaumur 

 sarcastically, being probably in bodily fear of so ter- 

 rible an animal.* Such are the stories which fill the 

 imagination even of philosophers, till real science en- 

 tirely expels them. 



The effluvium of camphor or turpentine may some- 

 times kill them, when in the winged state, but this 

 will have no effect upon their eggs, and seldom upon 

 the caterpillars; for they wrap themselves up too 

 closely to be easily reached by any agent except heat. 

 This, when it can be conveniently applied, will be 

 certain either to dislodge or to kill them. When the 

 effluvium of turpentine, however, reaches the cater- 

 pillar, Bonnet says it falls into convulsions, becomes 

 covered with livid blotches, and dies."]" 



The mother insect takes care to deposit her eggs 

 on or near such substances as she instinctively fore- 

 knows will be best adapted for the food of the young, 

 taking care to distribute them so that there may be 

 a plentiful supply and enough of room for each. We 

 have found, for example, some of those caterpillars 

 feeding upon the shreds of cloth used in training 

 wall-fruit trees; but we never saw more than two 

 caterpillars on one shred. This scattering of the 

 eggs in many places, renders the effect of the cater- 

 pillars more injurious, from their attacking many 

 parts of a garment or a piece of stuff at the same 

 timej. 



When one of the caterpillars of tliis family issues 



* R<'aumur, I'Tem. Hist. Insecta, ill. 70. 

 t Contemplation do la Nature, part xii. chap. x. note. 

 t J. R. 



