STATES OF INSECTS. (Larva.) 228 
woven so loosely, that the larva or pupa may always be 
discovered through it. Of this description are the co- 
coons of Hypogymna dispar, Arctia Salicis, &c., which 
consist only of a few slight meshes. Those of some others 
resemble gauze or lace*. Of the first description is one 
in my cabinet before alluded to, shaped somewhat like 
an air-balloon; the meshes are large and perfectly square. 
The pupa hangs in the centre, fixed by some few slight 
threads which diverge from it to all parts of the cocoon 
—so that it looks as if it was suspended in the air, like 
Mahomet’s coffin, without support. Of the second de- 
scription is a black one with very fine and nearly circular 
meshes: the threads that form these are thick, and seem 
to be agglutinated. In our own country, the cocoons 
of some beetles, as of Hypera Arator, Galeruca Tanaceti, 
and of some little Timea, L., also resemble gauze. Many 
of the larvee, however, which spin these cocoons, whose 
thinness is probably attributable to the smallness of their 
stock of silk, seem anxious for a more complete conceal- 
ment; and therefore commonly either hide them between 
leaves tied together, in some with a certain regularity, 
in others without art®; or thicken their texture, and 
render it opaque, by the addition of grains of earth ¢, 
or of other materials with which their bodies supply 
them. ‘These are principally of two kinds. The larve 
of Trichoda Neustria, Arctia Salicis, &c. after spinning 
their cocoons, cast from their anus three or four masses 
of a soft and paste-like matter, which they apply with 
* Prate XVII. Fie. 8. 
» The thick cocoons of Attacus Paphia, Polyphemus, &e. are also 
thus fastened between leaves. 
© Merian Europ. ii. t. ix. 
