456 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



Tinea, as T. Wilkella, T. Clerkella, &c. Many of 

 these last are little miracles of nature, which has la- 

 vished on them the most splendid tints tastefully com- 

 bined with gold, silver and pearl ; so that, were they 

 but formed upon a larger scale, they would far eclipse 

 all other animals in richness of decoration. 



Another tribe of larvae, not very numerous, con- 

 tent themselves for their habitations with simple holes, 

 into which they retire occasionally. Many of these are 

 merely cylindrical burrows in the ground, as those 

 formed by the larvae of field-crickets, Cicindelae and 

 EphemersB. But the larvas of the very remarkable 

 lepidopterous genus (Ni/cterobius of Mr. MacLeay) 

 before alluded to*, excavate for themselves dwellings 

 of a more artificial construction ; forming cylindrical 

 holes in the trees of New Holland, particularly the 

 different species of Banksia, to which they are very 

 destructive, and defending the entrance against the 

 attacks of the Mantes and other carnivorous insects by 

 a sort of trap-door composed of silk interwoven with 

 leaves and pieces of excrement, securely fastened at 

 the upper end, but left loose at the lower for the free 

 passage of the occupant. This abode they regularly 

 quit at sunset, for the purpose of laying in a store of 

 the leaves on which they feed. These they drag by one 

 at a time into their cell until the approach of light, 

 when they retreat precipitately into it, and there re- 

 main closely secluded the whole day, enjoying the 

 booty which their nocturnal range has provided. One 

 species lifts up the loose end of its door by its tail, and 



^ P. 306, 392. 



