236 Insect Architecture. 



they will not touch anything wrapped in a lion's skin ! the 

 poor little insects, says Reaumur, sarcastically, being probably 

 in bodily fear of so terrible an animal.* Such are the stories 

 which fill the imagination even of philosophers, till real 

 science entirely expels them. 



The effluvium of camphor or turpentine, or fumigation by 

 sulphur or chlorine, may sometimes kill them, when in the 

 winged state, but this will have no effect upon their eggs, 

 and seldom upon the caterpillars ; for they wrap themselves 

 up too closely to be easily reached by any agent except heat. 

 This, when it can be conveniently applied, will be certain 

 either to dislodge or to kill them. When the effluvium of 

 turpentine, however, reaches the caterpillar, Bonnet says it 

 falls into convulsions, becomes covered with livid blotches, 

 and dies.f 



The mother insect takes care to deposit her eggs on or 

 near such substances as she instinctively foreknows will be 

 best adapted for the food of the young, taking care to dis- 

 tribute them so that there may be a plentiful supply and 

 enough of room for each. We have found, for example, 

 some of those caterpillars feeding upon the shreds of cloth 

 used in training wall-fruit trees ; but we never saw more 

 than two caterpillars on one shred. This scattering of the 

 eggs in many places renders the effects of the caterpillars 

 more injurious, from their attacking many parts of a garment 

 or a piece of stuff at the same time. ( J. R.) 



When one of the caterpillars of this family issues from the 

 egg, its first care is to provide itself with a domicile, which 

 indeed seems no less indispensable to it than food ; for, like 

 all caterpillars that feed under cover, it will not eat while it 

 remains unprotected. Its mode of building is very similar 

 to that which is employed by other caterpillars that make use 

 of extraneous materials. The foundation or frame-work is 

 made of silk secreted by itself, and into this it interweaves 

 portions of the material upon which it feeds. It is said by 

 Bingley, that "after having spun a fine coating of silk 



* Reaumur, 'Mm. Hist. Inscctes,' iii. 70. 



f ' Contemplation de la Nature,' part xii. chap. x. note. 



