466 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



dress is adapted to that of their body — a cylindrical 

 case open at both ends. The stuff of which it is com- 

 posed is the manufacture of the larva of the Tinea, 

 which incorporates wool or hair artfully cut from our 

 clothes or furniture, with silk drawn from its own 

 mouth, into a w arm and thick tissue : and as this would 

 not be soft enough for its tender skin, it also lines the 

 inside of its coat with a layer of pure silk. Since this 

 suit of clothes during the earliest age of the insect ac- 

 curately fits its body, you will readily conceive that it 

 will frequently require enlarging. This the little oc- 

 cupant accomplishes as dexterously as any tailor. If 

 the case merely requires lengthening-, the task is easy. 

 All that is needful is to add a new ring of hair or wool 

 and silk to each end. But to enlarge it in width is not 

 so simple an affair. Yet it sets to work precisely as we 

 should, slitting the case on the two opposite sides, and 

 then adroitly inserting between them two pieces of the 

 requisite size. It does not, however, cut open the case 

 from one end to the other at once : the sides would se- 

 parate too far asunder, and the insect be left naked. It 

 therefore first cuts each side about half way down, and 

 then after having filled up the fissure proceeds to cut 

 the remaining half: so that, in fact, four enlarge;nent< 

 are made, and four separate pieces inserted. — The co- 

 lour of the habit is always the same as that of the stuff 

 from which it is tak^. Thus, if its original colour be 

 blue, and the insect previously to enlarging it be put 

 upon red cloth, the circles at the end and two stripes 

 down the middle will be red. If placed alternately 

 upon cloths of different hues, its dress will be parti- 

 coloured like that of a Harlequin. — The injury occa- 



