196 INSECT AKCHITECTURE. 



by a living 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 leaf is not 

 surprising ; for they are actually composed of a piece of 

 leaf; not, however, cut out from the whole thickness, but 

 artfully separated from the upper layer, as a person might 

 separate one of the leaves of paper from a sheet of paste- 

 board. 



The tents of this class of caterpillars, which are found 

 on the elm, the alder, and other trees with serrated leaves, 

 are much in the shape of a minute goldfish. They are 



A caterpillar's tent upon a leaf of the elm.— a, a, the part of the leaf from which the 

 tent has been cut out; b, the tent itself. 



convex on the back, where the indentations of the leaf out 

 of which they have been cut add to the resemblance, by 

 appearing like the dorsal fins of the fish. By depriving 

 one of those caterpillars common on the hawthorn of 

 its tents, for the sake of experiment, we put it under the 

 necessity of making another; for, as Pliny remarks of 

 the clothes-moth, they will rather die of hunger than 

 feed unprotected. AVhen we placed it on a fresh haw- 

 thorn leaf, it rejDeatedly examined every part of it, as if 

 seeking for its lost tent, though, when this was put in its 

 way, it would not again enter it ; but, after some delay, 

 commenced a new one. (J. E.) 



For this purpose, it began to eat through one of the 

 two outer membranes which compose the leaf and enclose 

 the pulp (parenchi/ma), some of which, also, it devoured, 

 and then thrust the hinder part of its body into the per- 



