TENT-MAKING CATERPILLARS. 223 



itself secure to feed on the materials of the cloth or 

 other animal matter within its reach, provided it 

 is dry and free from fat or grease, which Reaumur 

 found it would not touch. For building, it always 

 selects the straightest and loosest pieces of wool, but 

 for food it prefers the shortest and most compact; 

 and to procure these it eats into the body of the stuff, 

 rejecting the pile or nap, which it necessarily cuts 

 across at the origin, and permits to fall, leaving it 

 threadbare, as if it had been much worn. It must 

 have been this circumstance which induced Bonnet 

 to fancy (as we have already mentioned) that it cut 

 the hairs to make itself a smooth comfortable path to 

 walk upon. It would be equally correct to say that 

 an ox or a sheep dislikes walking aiTiongst long 

 grass, and therefore eats it down in order to clear the 

 way. 



Tent-making Caterpillars. 



The caterpillars of a family of small moths ( Tinei- 

 doi), which feed on the leaves of various trees, such as 

 the hawthorn, the elm, the oak, and most fruit-trees 

 particularly the pear, form habitations which are 

 exceedingly ingenious and elegant. They are so 

 very minute that they require close inspection to 

 discover them; and to the cursory observer, unac- 

 quainted with their habits, they will appear more like 

 the withered leaf scales of the tree, thrown off when 

 the buds expand, than artificial structures made by 

 insects. It is only, indeed, by seeing them move 

 about upon the leaves, that we discover they are in- 

 habited by a hving tenant, who carries them as the 

 snail does its shell. 



These tents are from a quarter of an inch to an 

 inch in length, and usually about the breadth of an 

 oat-straw. That they are of the colour of a withered 



