Moth- Caterpillars. 239 



says Bonnet, " as any tailor, and sets to work precisely as we 

 should do, slitting the case on the two opposite sides, and 

 then adroitly inserting between them two pieces of the 

 requisite size. It does not, however, cut open the case from 

 one end to the other at once ; the sides would separate too 

 far asunder, and the insect be left naked. It therefore first 

 cuts each side about half-way down, beginning sometimes at 

 the centre and sometimes at the end (Fig. c), and then, after 

 having filled up the fissure, proceeds to cut the remaining 

 half ; so that, in fact, four enlargements are made, and four 

 separate pieces inserted. The colour of the case is always 

 the same as that of the stuff from which it is taken. Thus, 

 if its original colour be blue, and the insect, previously to 

 enlarging it, be put upon red cloth, the circles at the end, 

 and two stripes down the middle, will be red."* Eeaumur 

 found that they cut these enlargements in no precise order, 

 but sometimes continuously, and sometimes opposite each 

 other, indifferently. 



The same naturalist says he never knew one leave its old 

 dwelling in order to build a new ; though, when once ejected 

 by force from its house, it would never enter it again, as 

 some other species of caterpillars will do, but always 

 preferred building another. We, on the contrary, have 

 more than once seen them leave an old habitation. The 

 very caterpillar, indeed, whose history we have above given, 

 first took up its abode in a specimen of the ghost-moth 

 (Hepialus humuli), where, finding few suitable materials for 

 building, it had recourse to the cork of the drawer, with the 

 chips of which it made a structure almost as warm as it 

 would have done from wool. Whether it took offence at our 

 disturbing it one day, or whether it did not find sufficient 

 food in the body of the ghost-moth, we know not ; but it left 

 its cork house, and travelled about eighteen inches, selected 

 "the old lady," one of the largest insects in the drawer, and 

 built a new apartment, composed partly of cork as before, 

 and partly of bits dipt out of the moth's wings. (J. E.) 



We have seen these caterpillars form their habitations ol 

 * Bonnet, vol. ix. p. 203. 



