DOOR-STEP NEIGHBORS 83 



investigate. But the entomologist will probably 

 classify this peculiar blossom at a glance, from 

 its family resemblance to other specimens with 

 which he is familiar. He will know, for instance, 

 that this is a sort of peripatetic or nomadic blos- 

 som that will travel about on the plant, with 

 which its open end will always remain in close 

 contact. Many of the individuals are seen appar- 

 ently growing upright out of the rounded seed- 

 pod of the rush ; and when the pink or speckled 

 tube finally concludes to take up its travels, a 

 clean round hole marks the spot of its tarrying, 

 and an empty globular shell tells the secret of 

 this brief attachment. 



For this petal - like tube, so commonly to be 

 seen upon the little rush of our paths, is, in truth, 

 a tiny silken case enclosing the body of a small 

 larva a diminutive psychid, or sack-bearer, which 

 I have not chanced to see described. Only the 

 head and six prolegs of the occupant ever emerge 

 from its case. Dragging its house along upon 

 the plant, it attaches the open mouth of the sack 

 close to the green seed-pod, after which the shell 

 is gnawed through at the point of contact, and 

 the young seeds devoured at pleasure, when a 

 new journey is made to the next capsule, and thus 

 until the maturity of the larva. At this time the 



