102 NESTS AND OTHER STRUCTURES 



and sometimes to meet, and thus to form an open 

 nest. 



The most common form of nest, however, is that 

 in which different parts of the same leaf or adja- 

 cent parts of different leaves are fastened together 

 by silken strands. The simplest and weakest of 

 these are made by the caterpillars of the Green 

 Comma (Polygonia faunus) and the Red Admiral 

 (Vanessa atalanta), which fasten together very 

 weakly the oj^posite edges of a single large leaf so 

 as just to make them meet ; but the threads are so 

 slight that they are ruptured with the slightest 

 effort. The caterpillar within, having thus secured 

 a shelter, seems loth to leave it and makes its meals 

 from its own dwelling, until, having literally eaten 

 itself out of house and home, it is forced to venture 

 forth and construct another. 



Another form of nest made from a single leaf 

 is constructed by all the higher skippers, Hesperini, 

 in early life, and by many of them throughout life, 

 by folding over a little piece of leaf, and fastening 

 the edge to the opjiosite surface by a few loose 

 strands of silk ; to effect this they first bite a little 

 channel into the leaf at just such a place as to 

 leave a fragment of leaf neither too large nor too 

 small to serve as a roof when they shall have 



