ARCHITECTURE OF MOTHS. 75 



bottom, for the free egress of the inmate. They 

 never quit their abode during the day, but regularly 

 set out, at sunset, on their perambulations in search 

 of food, and drag to their domicile, one by one, such 

 leaves as they feed upon, which they consume at 

 their leisure. One species carries the leaves of 

 Banksia serrata, by the footstalk, to its cell, the door 

 of which it opens with its tail, and enters backwards, 

 dragging the leaf after it.* 



The larva of the Tortrw and Tinea form the leaves 

 of plants, on which they feed, into comfortable and 

 convenient habitations. Some species of these, less 

 scrupulous, make more superficial abodes, by simply 

 connecting, in an irregular packet, a quantity of 

 leaves, united by a few of the silken threads which 

 they spin themselves, and there live in solitude ; 

 while others, still less ambitious, confine themselves 

 to a single leaf, with one side simply folded over the 

 other. Others, again, live in a sort of roll, which is 

 varied in shape, according to the peculiar taste of the 

 species, some cylindrical, others conical, like a grocer's 

 sugar paper, constructed with much nicety, closed at 

 the broad end, and left open at the smaller one, for the 

 ingress and egress of its inhabitant. It is impossible 

 attentively to contemplate these little domiciles with- 

 out our admiration and wonder being awakened ; and 

 we naturally marvel at the mechanical power by which 

 it has been constructed, and how an insect, possessing 

 neither hands nor fingers, could roll together a leaf, 



* LEWIS'S Prodromus of Entomology, p. 8. 



