258 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



niture and the wood-work of old houses ; and many larvae of other orders, 

 particularly Lepidoptera. One of these last, the larva of Cossus ligniperda, 

 differs from its congeners in fabricating for its residence during winter 

 a habitation of pieces of wood lined with fine silk. 1 Under this division, 

 too, come the singular habitations of the subcutaneous larvae, so called 

 from the circumstance of their feeding upon the parenchyma included 

 between the upper and under cuticles of the leaves of plants, between 

 which, though the whole leaf is often not thicker than a sheet of writing- 

 paper, they find at once food and lodging. You must have been at 

 some time struck by certain white zigzag or labyrinth-like lines on the 

 leaves of the dandelion, bramble, and numerous other plants : the next 

 time you meet with one of them, if you hold it up to the light you will 

 perceive that the colour of these lines is owing to the pulpy substance of 

 the leaf having there been removed ; and at the further end you will pro- 

 bably remark a dark-coloured speck, which, when carefully extricated from 

 its covering, you will find to be the little miner of the tortuous galleries 

 which you are admiring. Some of these minute larvae, to which the paren- 

 chyma of a leaf is a vast country, requiring several weeks to be traversed 

 by the slow process of mining which they adopt that of eating the exca- 

 vated materials as they proceed are transformed into beetles (Clonus 

 thapsi, &c.) ; others into flies ; and a still greater number into very minute 

 moths, as Heribeia Clerkella, &c. Many of these last are little miracles of 

 nature, which has lavished on them the most splendid tints tastefully 

 combined with gold, silver, and pearl, so that, were they but formed upon 

 a larger scale, they would far eclipse all other animals in richness of deco- 

 ration. 



Another tribe of larvae, not very numerous, content themselves for their 

 habitations with simple holes, into which they retire occasionally. Many 

 of these are merely cylindrical burrows in the ground, as those formed by 

 the larvae of field-crickets, Cicindelae, and Ephemerae. But the larvae of 

 the very remarkable lepidopterous genus (Nycterobius of Mr. MacLeay) 

 before alluded to, excavate for themselves dwellings of a more artificial con- 

 struction ; forming cylindrical holes in the trees of New Holland, particu- 

 larly the different species of Sanksia, to which they are very destructive, 

 and defending the entrance against the attacks of the Mantes and other 

 carnivorous insects by a sort of trap-door composed of silk interwoven 

 with leaves and pieces of excrement, securely fastened at the upper end, 

 but left loose at the lower for the free passage of the occupant. This 

 abode they regularly quit at sunset, for the purpose of laying in a store of 

 the leaves on which they feed. These they drag by one at a time into 

 their cell until the approach of light, when they retreat precipitately into 

 it, and there remain closely secluded the whole day, enjoying the booty 

 which their nocturnal range has provided. One species lifts up the loose 

 end of its door by its tail, and enters backward, dragging after it a leaf of 

 Banksia serrata, which it holds by the foot-stalk. 2 



A third description of larvae, chiefly of the two lepidopterous tribes of 

 Tortricidcs and Tineidce, form into convenient habitations the leaves of the 

 plants on which they feed. Some of these merely connect together with 

 a few silken threads several leaves so as to form an irregular packet, in the 



1 Lyonet, Anat. of Coss. 9. 



2 Lewin's Prodromus Entom. p. 8. 



