478 INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



when it is considered that the case is rather fusiform 

 than cylindrical ; that the end through which it eats 

 is circular, and the other curiously three-cornered like 

 a cocked-hat ; and that consequently its cloth requires 

 to be very irregularly and artfully cut, to be accommo- 

 dated to such a figure — it must be admitted, are the re- 

 sult of an instinct of no very simple kind. Compli- 

 cated, however, as tliese manoeuvres seem, our ingeni- 

 ous workman is not confined to them. By way of put- 

 ting its resources to the test, Reaumur cut off the ser- 

 rated edge from the nearly-finished coat of one of them, 

 and exposed the little occupant to the day. He ex- 

 pected that it would have quitted its mutilated gar- 

 ment and commenced another ; and so it certainly 

 would, had it been guided by an invariable instinct. 

 But he calculated erroneously. Like one of its bro- 

 ther tailors of the biped race, it knew how " to cut its 

 coat according to its cloth," and immediately setting 

 about repairing the injury sewed up the rent. Nor 

 was this all. The scissars having cut off one of the 

 projections intended to enter into the construction of 

 the triangular end of its case, it entirely changed the 

 original plan, and made that end the head which had 

 been first designed for the tail. 



On another occasion Reaumur observed one of these 

 larvae to cut out its coat from the very centre of a leaf, 

 where it is obvious a series of operations wholly differ- 

 ent must be adopted, the two membranes composing it, 

 necessarily requiring to be cut and sewed on two sides 

 instead of on one only. But what was most striking 

 in this new procedure was the alteration which the ca- 

 terpillar made in the period of sewing up its garment. 



