166 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



whole muscles of his body to shorten his threads, 

 and pull down the edge of the leaf When he had 

 drawn the threads as tight as he could, he held 

 them till ho spun fresh ones of sufficient strength to 

 retain the leaf in the bent position into which he had 

 pulled it. He then left the first series to hang loose 

 while he shortened the fresh spun ones as before. 

 This process was continued till he had worked down 

 about an inch and a half of the leaf, as much as he 

 deemed sufficient for his habitation. This was the 

 first part of the architecture. 



By the time he had worked to the end of the fold 

 he had brought the edge of the leaf to touch the 

 mid-rib ; but it was only held in this position by a 

 few of the last spun threads, for all the first spun 

 ones hung loose within. Apparently aware of this, 

 the insect protruded more than half of its body 

 through the small aperture left at the end, and spun 

 several bundles of threads on the outside precisely 

 similar to those ropes of a tent which extend beyond 

 the canvass, and are pegged into the ground. Un- 

 willing to trust the exposure of his whole body 

 on the outside, lest he should be seized by the 

 first sand-wasp {odynerus) or sparrow which might 

 descry him, he now withdrew to complete the interned 

 portion of his dwelling, where the threads were hang- 

 ing loose and disorderly. For this purpose he turned 

 his head about, and proceeded precisely as he had 

 done at the beginning of his task, but taking care to 

 spin his new threads so as to leave the loose ones on 

 the outside, and make his apartment smooth £ind 

 neat. When he again reached the opposite end, he 

 constructed there also a similar series of cables on 

 the outside, and then withdrew to give some final 

 touches to the interior. 



It is said by Kirby and Spence,* that when these 



* Introd. vol. i. p. 457, 



