126 OUR INSECT FRIENDS AND FOES 



flowers. Its mode of procedure has been 

 described by the curator of the Sarawak Museum 

 in the following interesting manner: "A bud 

 would be shorn off with the mandibles, then held 

 in the two front pairs of legs, and covered all 

 over with silk issuing from the mouth of the 

 caterpillar. The caterpillar then twisted the 

 front part of its body round, and attached with 

 silk the bud to one of the spinous processes, and 

 another bud would then be attached to this, and 

 so on until a sufficiently long string generally 

 three or four buds was made, then operations 

 on another spine would be commenced. The 

 caterpillar fed on these buds, scooping out the 

 interior, and when not hurried, using the empty 

 shells in preference to whole buds for its 

 covering. When irritated it curled up, and 

 remained thus for fifteen or twenty minutes. 

 At other times it would sway about looking like 

 a branchlet blown by the breeze." 



An extraordinary insect belonging to the 

 Hemiptera is Reduvious personatus. In the 

 larval state it lives in houses, lurking in dark 

 and dusty corners, on the look out for its prey, 

 consisting of flies and other small insects. 

 Naturally, the Reduvius is a slim, flat insect 

 with six slender legs and a smooth body, but it 

 so covers itself with fluff, and particles of dust 

 and dirt, that it appears to be nearly double its 

 real size, and looks more like a bloated, woolly 

 spider than anything else. Under this dis- 

 guise, this grotesque-looking insect stealthily 

 approaches its prey. Slowly and cautiously it 

 moves, taking a few steps and then remaining 



