in HERMIT HOMES 107 



mediately forms its tube, for the protection of its 

 soft delicate body and in view of its carnivorous 

 disposition. When the transformations are almost 

 complete, it eats its way through the end, and 

 leaves its pupal skin by flight at the surface 

 of the water. Larger kinds crawl up the stems 

 of aquatic plants before abandoning the pupal 

 envelope. A few caddis worms make immovable 

 habitations, fixed to the spot whereon they were 

 constructed. The grub is then compensated by larger 

 range of movement ; its abdominal claspers are of 

 much greater length proportionately, allowing it to 

 extend itself to some distance from the entrance. 



Some moths (Hydrocampidae) are aquatic during 

 their larval period. A common species in France 

 fashion homes for themselves out of two pieces of 

 leaf, sewn as it were together with a little silk, 

 whence their heads and thoracic segments appear, as 

 in the caddis. 



Among the habitations constructed by solitary 

 architects, being perfect insects, for their own accom- 

 modation, some of the simplest are those of the 

 mole and field crickets. The odd-looking mole 

 cricket (Gryllotalpa vulgaris) is one of the largest 

 insects in England, stouter and stronger than any, 

 and like its namesake it is fierce and irascible, and 

 exceedingly voracious. In shape, and also in many 

 of its habits, it is the very counterpart of the mole. 

 Its appearance testifies to its mode of life. The body 

 is almost cylindrical, the tibiae * of the fore-legs are 

 short, broad, and flat, and as it were fingered, the 

 feet being small, and almost hidden by the broad 



