Caterpillars. 187 



rib. The weight of his body was not, however, the only 

 power which he employed ; for, using the terminal pro-legs 

 as a point of support, he exerted the whole muscles of his 

 body to shorten his threads, and pull down the edge of the 

 leaf. When he had drawn the threads as tight as he could, he 

 held them till he spun fresh ones of sufficient strength to re- 

 tain the leaf in the bent position into which he had pulled it. 

 He then left the first series to hang loose while he shortened 

 the fresh-spun ones as before. This process was continued 

 till he had worked down about an inch and a half of the leaf, 

 as much as he deemed sufficient for his habitation. This 

 was the first part of the architecture. 



By the time he had worked to the end of the fold, he had 

 brought the edge of the leaf to touch the mid-rib ; but it was 

 only held in this position by a few of the last-spun threads, 

 for all the first-spun ones hung loose within. Apparently 

 aware of this, the insect protruded more than half of its body 

 through the small aperture left at the end, and spun several 

 bundles of threads on the outside precisely similar to those 

 ropes of a tent which extend beyond the canvas, and are pegged 

 into the ground. Unwilling to trust the exposure of his 

 whole body on the outside, lest he should be seized by the 

 first sand-wasp (odynerus) or sparrow which might descry 

 him, he now withdrew to complete the internal portion of 

 his dwelling, where the threads were hanging loose and dis- 

 orderly. For this purpose he turned his head about, and 

 proceeded precisely as he had done at the beginning of his 

 task, but taking care to spin his new threads so as to leave 

 the loose ones on the outside, and make his apartment smooth 

 and neat. When he again reached the opposite end, he 

 constructed there also a similar series of cables on the out- 

 side, and then withdrew to give some final touches to the 

 interior. 



It is said by Kirby and Spence,* that when these leaf- 

 rolling insects find that the larger nervures of the leaves are 

 so strong as to prevent them from bending, they " weaken it 

 by gnawing it here and there half through." We have never 



* Introd., vol. i. p. 457. 



