522 INSECTS AT HOME. 



case by its base, the mouths of the two cases coinciding" with 

 each other, and consequently being very thick and strong. 

 This inner case is not the least like the outer one, being nearly 

 cylindrical, and hardly mder than the neck, except at the 

 base, where it slightly widens. Owing to the residence of the 

 caterpillar within it, the colour of the inner case is much 

 darker than that of the outer. It is formed in the same 

 luanner, being constructed of a great number of silken scallops. 



When the larva is full-fed, it draws the mouth of this double 

 case tightly against the surface of the leaf, and fastens it down 

 with a great number of silken bands, always attaching it 

 to some nervure, generally the middle nervure, of the leaf. 

 Within this double fortress the larva changes to a pupa, and 

 not until it assumes the perfect shape does it leave the silken 

 case in which it passed its larval existence. 



Such is a brief description of this very remarkable habita- 

 tion. I have always found them on the oak, fixed to the 

 upper surface of the leaf, and have taken as many as I wanted 

 in a small path running over Shooter's Hill, in Kent, where 

 the quantity of oak underwood brings all oak-loving insects 

 easily to hand. 



As to the other members of this genus, they all make cases 

 more or less curious, but all constructed of the same materials 

 and for the same purpose. That of Coleophora therinella is 

 very long and slender, quite straight, and of a pale-brown. 

 That of Coleophora currucipennella is shaped something like 

 a round-headed Fiji club, the neck being very narrow, and the 

 base very large and covered with all sorts of irregular projec- 

 tions. The popular name of this Moth is the Little Waggoner, 

 and its colouring is very much like that of the preceding species, 

 except that the nervures are yellow towards the base and 

 become brown towards the tips of the wings. The larva is 

 rather a general feeder, and has been found upon the leaves of 

 the oak, the sallow, the hornbeam, and other trees. The larva- 

 case of Coleophora conspicuella well deserves the name, for it ia 

 extraordinarily black, and looks very much like a black pea- 

 pod in miniature, stuck by one end to a leaf. 



On Woodcut LX. Fig. 3 is shown the Eed Feather (Tische- 

 ria complanella)^ so called from its colour and the feathery 



