TENT-MAKING CATERPILLARS. 197 



foration. The cavity, however, which it had formed, 

 being yet too small for its reception, it immediately re- 

 sumed the task of making it larger. By continuing to 

 gnaw into the pulp, between the membranes of the leaf (for 

 it took the greatest care not to puncture or injure the 

 membranes themselves), it soon succeeded in mining out a 

 gallery rather larger than was sufficient to contain its bod3\ 

 We perceived that it did not throw out as rubbish the pulp 

 it dug into, but devoured it as food — a circumstance not 

 the least remarkable in its proceedings. 



As the two membranes of leaf thus deprived of the 

 enclosed pulp appeared white and transpai'ent, every 

 movement of the insect within could be distinctly seen ; 

 and it was not a little interesting to watch its ingenious 

 operations while it was making its tent from the mem- 

 branes prepared as we have just described. These, as 

 Reaumur has remarked, are in fact to the insect like a 

 piece of cloth in the hands of a tailor ; and no tailor could 

 cut out a shape with more neatness and dexterity than this 

 little workman does. As the caterpillar is furnished in its 

 mandibles with an excellent pair of scissors, this may not 

 appear to be a difficult task ; yet, when we examine the 

 matter more minutely, we find that the peculiar shape of 

 the two extremities requires different curvatures, and this, 

 of course, renders the operation no less complex, as 

 Reaumur subjoins, than the shaping of the pieces of cloth 

 for a coat.* The insect, in fact, shapes the membranes 

 slightly convex on one side and concave on the other, and 

 at one end twice as large as the other. In the instance 

 which we observed, beginning at the larger end, it bent 

 them gently on each side by pressing them with its body 

 thrown into a curve. We have not said it cuts, but shapes 

 its materials ; for it must be obvious that if the insect 

 had cut both the membranes at this stage of its operations, 

 the pieces would have fallen and carried it along with 

 them. 



To obviate such an accident it proceeded to join the 

 two edges, and secure them firmly with silk, before it made 

 * 'Mem. Hist. Insect.' iii. p. 106. 



