Mining Caterpillars. 



251 



The muff-looking tent in which we find these insects does 

 not require much trouble to construct ; for the caterpillar 

 does not, like the clothes-moth caterpillar, join the willow- 

 cotton together, fibre by fibre it is contented with the 



a, Branch of the Willow, with seed-spikes covered with cotton ; 6, Muff-tents, 

 made of this cotton by c, the Caterpillar. 



state in which it finds it on the seed. Into this it burrows, 

 lines the interior with a tapestry of silk, and then detaches 

 the whole from the branch where it was growing, and carries 

 it about with it as a protection while it is feeding.* 



An inquiring friend of Keaumur having found one of 

 these insects floating about in its muff-tent upon water, 

 concluded that they feed upon aquatic plants ; but he was 

 soon convinced that it had only been blown down by an 

 accident, which must frequently happen, as willows so often 

 hang over water. May it not be, that the buoyant materials 

 of the tent were intended to furnish the little inhabitant 



* Reaumur, iii. p. 130. * 



