226 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



membranes at this stage of its operations, the pieces 

 would have fallen and carried it along with them. 



To obviate such an accident, it proceeded to join 

 the two edges, and secure them firmly with silk, 

 before it made a single incision to detach them. 

 When it had in this manner joined the two edges 

 along one of the sides, it inserted its head on the 

 outside of the joining, first at one end and then at the 

 other, gnawing the fibres till that whole side was 

 separated. It proceeded in the same manner with 

 the other side, joining the edges before it cut them; 

 and when it arrived at the last fibre, the only remain- 

 ing support of its now finished tent, it took the pre- 

 caution, before snipping it, to moor the whole to the 

 uncut part of the leaf by a cable of its own silk. 

 Consequently, when it does cut the last nervure, it is 

 secure from falling, and can then travel along the leaf, 

 carrying its tent on its back, as a snail does its shell.* 



a The caterpillar occupying the space it has eaten between the 

 cuticle of the leaf, b A portion of the upper cuticle, cut out for 

 the formation of the tent, c The tent nearly completed, d The 

 perfect tent, with the caterpillar protruding its head. 



We have just discovered (Nov 4th, 1829), upon 

 the nettle, a tent of a very singular appearance, in 

 consequence of the materials of which it is made. 

 The caterpillar seems, indeed, to have proceeded ex- 



^ J. R. 



