MADE BY CATERPILLARS 105 



ment. The Painted Beauty (V. hiintera) makes 

 a' similar but rounder nest on the everlasting, and 

 conceals itself very effectually by completely cover- 

 ing the more compact but still very slight web, 

 with the inflorescence of the plant. 



Another class of nests is that made by some of 

 our Melitaeini (Cinclidia and Euphydryas), which, 

 living in company, cover at first a few leaves, then 

 the whole head of the plant, and eventually, some- 

 times, the whole plant in a tolerably firm web, 

 within which the company feed, until the whole 

 becomes a nasty mess of half-eaten and drying 

 leaves, and all sorts of frass, including their own 

 excrement and cast-off pellicles, everywhere tangled 

 with web. Within such a nest they hibernate, 

 but not until they have strengthened it with denser 

 web and drawn the leaves of the head more tightly, 

 so that it becomes a mere bunch which one may 

 cover with his hand, and which contracts the more, 

 apparently as winter approaches. In the spring 

 they evidently have had enough of this sort of 

 communal life, and live thereafter in the open 

 air. 



But perhaps the most interesting nest of all is 

 that made by the caterpillar of the Viceroy. This 

 caterpillar hibernates when partly grown, and 



