148 



INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



seen, is a somewliat complicated eifort of mechanical skill. 

 It has been minutely described by M. Eeauraur ; but the 

 preceding representation will perhaps make the process 

 clearer than a more detailed account. 



This caterpillar, like those of which we have already 

 spoken, devours all the interior of the roller. It weaves, 

 also, in the interior, a small and thin cocoon of white silk, 

 the tissue of which is made compact and close. It is then 

 transformed into a chrysalis. 



The caterpillars of two of our largest and handsomest 

 butterflies, the painted lady {Cynthia carciui, Stephens), 

 and the admirable, or Alderman of the London fl}- fanciers 

 ( Vanessa atalanta), are also leaf-rollers. The first selects 

 the leaves of the great spear-thistle, and sometimes those 

 of the stemless or star-thistle, which might be sripposed 

 rather difficult to bend ; but the caterpillar is four times 

 as large and strong as those which we have been hitherto 



Nests of the Hesperia malvaj, with Caterpillar, Chrysalis, and Butterflies 



describing. In some seasons it is plentiful ; in others it 

 is rarely to be met with : but the admirable is seldom 



