SPINNING CATERPILLARS. 3:25 



be very large in proportion to the pupa of the insect, 

 reminding us not a littJe of the carved ivory balls 

 from China. The meshes of the net-work are also 

 large, but the materials are strong and of a waxy 

 consistence. Upon remarking that no netting was 

 ever spun over the part of the plant to which the 

 cocoon was attached, we endeavoured to make them 

 spin cocoons perfectly globular, by detaching thera 

 when nearly finished; but though we tried tour or 

 five in this way, we could not make them add a sin- 

 gle mesh after removal, all of them making their 

 escape through the opening, and refusing to re-enter 

 in order to complete their structure.* 



The silk, if it may be so termed, spun by many 

 species of larvse is of a still stronger texture than the 

 waxy silk of the little weevil just mentioned. We 

 recently met with a remarkable instance of this at 

 Lee, in the cocoons of one of the larger ich- 

 neumons (Ophion Vmulcel Stephens), inclosed 

 in that of a puss-moth {Cerura Vinula) — itself re- 

 markable for being composed of sand as well as wood, 

 the fibres of which had been scooped out of the under- 

 ground cross-bar of an old paling, to which it was 

 attached. But the most singular portion of this was 

 the junction of the outer wall with the edges of the 

 hollow thus scooped out, which was formed of fibres 

 of wood placed across the fibres of the bar nearly at 

 right angles, and strongly cemented together, as if 

 to form a secure foundation for the building. 



In this nest were formed, surreptitiously introduced 

 into the original building, five empty cells of a black 

 colour, about an inch long, and a sixth of an inch in 

 diameter; nearly cylindrical in form, but somewhat 

 flattened; vertical and parallel to one another, though 

 slightly curved on the inner side. The cells are com- 



* J. R. 



VOL. IV. 28 



