6 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK 



together before they expand, so that the result 

 is a flat bag. Everybody who has grown rose- 

 trees is familiar with examples of this use of the 

 silk thread ; another common species treats the 

 apple-leaf in similar fashion, and in other cases 

 several leaves are spun together with the same 

 object in view — the hiding of the destructive 

 caterpillar until it has developed into a moth. 



A most remarkable example of an insect that 

 cannot make silk using another that can for its 

 ends is afforded by an Asiatic ant {CEcophylla 

 smaragdina) . This ant haunts the foliage of trees, 

 and is desirous of having shelters among the leaves ; 

 but as it is not a spinning ant (there are such), it 

 has brought what looks like intelligence to its aid, 

 and got its desires satisfied partly by proxy. Ant- 

 larvae have the power of spinning silk which is 

 necessary for the construction of the cocoons in 

 which they pass the chrysalis stage of their life- 

 history. A party of ants hold together the edges 

 of leaves which they have decided are to form the 

 shelter, and whilst they are so held other ants 

 come up from the nest, each with an ant-larva in 

 its mouth. The desire of its adult relations is by 

 some means conveyed to it, and it produces a 

 sufficiency of fluid silk to connect the edges of the 

 leaves together. 



Several Indian species of ants (Polyrhachis) build 

 their nests on the upper side of leaves, or between 

 two leaves. These consist of a single cell, and 

 those that are fully exposed on the surface of the 



