^2 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



love for society, live in solitude till they become pupae, 

 which takes place in about a month. When they desert 

 their nests, the spiders take possession of them ; which 

 has given rise to a prevalent though most absurd opinion, 

 that they are the parents of these caterpillars \ 



With other caterpillars the association continues 

 during the whole of the larva state. De Geer mentions 

 one of the saw-flies {Serrifera) of this description M'hich 

 form a common nidus by connecting leaves together 

 with silken threads, each larva moreover spinning a tube 

 of the same material for its own private apartment, in 

 whicli it glides backwards and foi-wards upon its back ^. 

 I have observed similar nidi in this country ; the in- 

 sects that form them belong to the Fabrician genus 

 Lyda. 



The most remarkable insects, however, that arrange 

 under this class of imperfect associates, are those that 

 observe a particular order of march. Though they 

 move without beat of drum, they maintain as much 

 regularity in their step as a file of soldiers. It is a most 

 agreeable sight, says one of Nature's most favoured 

 admirers, Bonnet, to see several hundreds of the larvae 

 of TricJioda Neustria marching after each other, some 

 in straight lines, others in curves of various inflection, 

 resembling, from their fiery colour, a moving cord of 

 gold stretched upon a silken ribband of the purest 

 white; this ribband is the carpeted causeway that leads 

 to their leafy pasture from their nest. Equally amusing 

 is the progress of another moth, the Pityocampa, before 

 noticed ; they march together from their common citadel, 



' Vol. 1. 473. Reuunuir, ii. \2o. >> DeGeer, ii. 1029. 



