476 INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



Apis Muscorum^ L., and some other species of hum« 

 ble-bees cover their nests with a roof of moss. M. P. 

 Huber having- placed a nest of the former under a bell 

 glass, he stuffed the interstices between its bottom and 

 the irregular surface on which it rested, with a linen 

 cloth. This cloth, the bees, finding themselves in a si-^ 

 tuation where no moss was to be had, tore thread from 

 thread, carded it with their feet into a felted mass, 

 and applied it to the same purpose as moss, for which 

 it was nearly as well adapted. — Some other humble^ 

 bees tore the cover of a book with which he had closed 

 the top of the box that contained them, and made use 

 of the detached morsels in covering their nest^. 



The larva of Bomhi/x Cossus, L., which feeds in the 

 interior of trees, previously to fabricating a cocoon and 

 assuming the pupa state, forms for the egress of the 

 future moth a cylindrical orifice, except when it finds 

 a suitable liole ready made. When the moth is about 

 to appear, the chrysalis with its anterior end forces an 

 opening in the cocoon. If the orifice in the tree has 

 been formed by itself, in which case it exactly fits its 

 body, it enihelj/ quits the cocoon, and pushes itself half 

 way out of the hole, where it remains secure from fall-! 

 ing until the moth is disclosed. But if the orifice, hav- 

 ing been adopted, be larger than it ought to have been, 

 and thus not capable of supporting the pupa in this 

 position, the provident insect pushes itself only half 

 waij out of the cocoon, which thus serves for the sup- 

 port which in the former case the wood itself afforded''. 



The variations in the procedures of the larva of a 

 little moth {Tinea, F.) described by Reaumur, whose 



• Linn. Trans, vi. 254 — . ^ Lyonct, Traile anu'.omiqMc, &\c. J6 — » 



