360 Insect Architecture. 



the strong silken web which lines the cell, and next is the 

 layer of leaf fragments. Outside them comes the chevaux 

 defrise of crossed sticks, and lastly we have the grey silken 

 web. This outer wrapper has no connection with the 

 interior of the cell, and is only lightly attached to the 

 ends of the cross sticks. 



[Within this curious dwelling the caterpillar conceals the 

 whole of its body, clinging to the branch or leaf by its feet, 

 and if alarmed drawing itself up so that the mouth of the 

 cocoon is pressed tightly against the branch, and effectu- 

 ally conceals even the feet which hold it. 



[The other figure on the right hand represents the dwelling 

 of another Housebuilder caterpillar. It looks very much as if 

 it were made of drab cloth. The most remarkable point about 

 it is the lower end. When the insect is within the dwelling 

 the extremity has a spiral twist, but when the moth has 

 escaped the spiral form is destroyed, and it appears as repre- 

 sented in the illustration. The female Oiketicus never attains 

 the winged state nor leaves her house, but lives and dies 

 in it, almost unchanged in shape. In fact, the adult female 

 is even more undeveloped in appearance than the caterpillar, 

 and looks like a large, fat, unwieldy grub, covered with down. 

 The male, on the contrary, is a tolerably active moth, with 

 sharply-pointed wings and beautiful feathered antennae. 



[Another kind of Housebuilder's residence is shown in the 

 lower left-hand figure, enveloped and almost concealed by 

 leaves. 



[The remaining figures represent the dwellings of two 

 unknown insects, both from Australia. The upper left- 

 hand nest is made wonderfully like that of the weaver- 

 bird, being composed of fibres like cow-hairs woven loosely 

 together. It is brown outside and white in the interior. 



[The last nest is made of some substance which is smooth, 

 and hard as horn, brown within, and dark grey on the 

 outside. The circular lid by which the enclosed insect 

 escapes is shown open. 



[In the accompanying illustration, we have five remarkable 

 pensile nests of insects, some British, and others exotic. 



