Goat-Moth. 209 



warm room and placed under a glass along with some 

 pieces of wood, which it might eat if so inclined, it was 

 roused for a time from its dormant state, and began to move 

 about. It was not long, however, in constructing a new 

 cell for itself, no less ingenious than the former. It either 

 could not gnaw into the fir plank, where it was now placed 

 with a glass above it, or it did not choose to do so ; for it 

 left it untouched, and made it the basis of the edifice it 

 began to construct. It formed, in fact, a covering for itself 

 precisely like the one from which we had dislodged it, 

 composed of raspings of wood detached for the purpose 

 from what had been given it as food, the largest piece of 

 which was employed as a substantial covering and protec- 

 tion for the whole. It remained in this retreat, motionless, 

 and without food, till revived by the warmth of the ensuing 

 spring, when it gnawed its way out, and began to eat vora- 

 ciously, to make up for its long fast. 



These caterpillars are three years in arriving at their 

 final change into the winged state; but as the one just 

 mentioned was nearly full grown, it began, in the month 

 of May, to prepare a cell, in which it might undergo its 

 metamorphosis. Whether it had actually improved its 

 skill in architecture by its previous experience we will not 

 undertake to say, but its second cell was greatly superior 

 to the first. In the first there was only one large piece of 



Nest of Goat-Moth. Figured from specimen, and raised (o show the Pupa. 



wood employed ; in the second, two pieces were placed in 

 such a manner as to support each other, and beneath the 



p 



