20 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF IXSECTS. 



mutual assisting- of each other," says Catesby, ^^ in 

 rolling those globular balls from the place where they 

 made them, to that of their interment, which is usually 

 the distance of some yards, more or less. This they 

 perform breech foremost, by raising their hind parts, 

 forcing along the ball with their hind feet. Two or 

 three of them are sometimes engaged in trundling one 

 ball, which, from meeting with impediments fi-om the 

 unevenness of the ground, is sometimes deserted by 

 them : it is however attempted by others with success, 

 unless it happens to roll into some deep hollow chink, 

 where they are constrained to leave it ; but they con- 

 tinue their work by roiling off the next ball that comes 

 in their way. None of them seem to know their own 

 balls, but an equal care for the whole appears to affect 

 all the community''." 



Many larvae also of Lepidoptera associate with this 

 view, some of which are social only during part of their 

 existence, and others during the whole of it. The 

 first of these continue together while their united la- 

 bours are beneficial to them ; but when they reach a 

 certain period of their life, they disperse and become 

 solitary. Of this kind are the caterpillars of a little 

 butterfly {Papilio Cinxia) which devour the narrow- 

 leaved plantain. The families of these, usually amount- 

 ing to about a hundred, unite to form a pyramidal 

 silken tent, containing several apartments, which is 

 pitched over some of the plants that constitute their 

 food, and shelters them both from the sun and the rain. 

 When they have consumed the provision which it co- 

 vers, they construct a new one over other roots of this 



* Cateeby's Carolina, ii. 111. See above, You I. <Jd Ed. 350. 



