532 HABITATIONS OF SPIDERS AND INSECTS. 
materials resembling the soil around ; and so little does it 
differ from this, as to be with difficulty distinguished, even 
by a person seeking to discover 
the Spider’s habitation. If an 
attempt is made to lift it, when 
,, the animal is within its excava- 
tion, the movement is resisted 
by the whole force of the Spider, 
“ which holds down the door, by 
‘ fixing its claws into small holes — 
* on its under surface at the 
' point most distant from the hinge, 
<- where its force may be most ad- 
+ vantageously applied. 
01. Among Insects, we find 
a great number of very curious 
processes instinctively performed in the construction of 
their habitations. Many Caterpillars form for themselves a 
protection, by rolliug together portions of leaves, and attach- 
ing these by threads. In almost every garden, we may 
observe (at the proper season) nests of this kind, on the 
leaves of the Lilac or Gooseberry ; and a similar one, repre- 
sented in fig. 272, is constructed in the leaves of the oak, by 
the caterpillar of a small nocturnal Butterfly, the Tortrix vii- 
dissima. The Larva of the little Clothes-moth, again, forms a 
sort of tubular sheath, composed of the filaments it detaches 
from the stuff through which 
it excavates its galleries ; this 
sheath itis continually prolong- 
ing at one extremity; and 
when, in consequence of the 
growth of the larva, its tube 
becomes too small for its com- 
fortable residence, it slits it 
down and lets-in a piece. The 
; aquatic Larvee of the Caddice- 
Fig. 272.—Nxst or Tonrrix. flies (fig. 273, c), which are 
commonly known as Caddice- 
worms, house themselves in straws, pieces of hollow stick, 
rushes, &c.; and those of some species glue together a 
number of minute stones, pieces of stick, small shells, &e., 
Fig. 271, Nest oF MYGALE. 
