i68 STRANGE DWELLINGS. 



more helpless as a moth than as a caterpillar. Among the British 

 moths we have several species in which the females are wing- 

 less, but at all events they do look like moths which have been 

 deprived of wings, and are able to move about with tolerable 

 freedom. Of these wingless females, the common Vapourer 

 moth ( Orgyia antiqua), is a familiar example, its fat, rounded 

 abdomen and little truncated rudiments of wings being known 

 <o all collectors. 



But the female House-builder Moth is as utterly helpless a 

 being as can well be conceived. She has not the least vestige 

 of wings, and but the smallest indications of legs or antennae. 

 None but an entomologist would take her for a lepidopterous 

 insect, or even for an insect at all, for she looks like a fat, 

 down-covered grub, with very feeble limbs, which can scarcely 

 support the body, and with antennae that merely consist of a 

 few rounded joints, entirely unlike the beautiful feathered 

 plumes which decorate the male. 



One of our commonest moths makes a really beautiful pensile 

 nest, though it is hardly appreciated as it should be. I allude 

 to the well-known Tiger Moth {Arctia caja), whose scarlet, 

 white, and brown robes are so familiar to every one who cares 

 for insects, or who happens to possess or take an interest in a 

 garden. 



In two of its stages the insect is very common. In the larval 

 condition it is popularly known as the Woolly Bear, in conse- 

 quence of the coating of long bristle-like hairs with which its 

 body is profusely covered, and which project like the quills of a 

 porcupine, or the spines of a hedgehog, whenever the creature 

 rolls itself up, a movement which it always makes when alarmed. 

 So elastic are the hairs, that the caterpillar may be thrown from 

 a considerable height without suffering any injury, and in all 

 probability their formidable appearance serves to deter foes from 

 meddling with it. 



When the caterpillar has ceased feeding, and is about to be- 

 come a pupa, it ascends some convenient object, and then spins 

 a beautiful cocoon, shaped very much like the grass hammocks 



