202 Tumehri. 
under ledges, on walls, and on clothing, we may often see the flat brown cases 
either being dragged along by the caterpillars, or suspended with the empty 
pupa-skin projecting at the other end, the moth having emerged. When I 
was a little boy I used to be very much interested in these caterpillars and 
their cases. The latter are neatly lined inside with web, and taper slightly at 
either end, so that they are broadest at the middle. They are open also at 
either end, and if we alarm the caterpillars while they are dragging along their 
cases, they instantly withdraw, and so quickly show their head protruding at 
the other end, that, as a boy, I used at first to regard them as curious creatures 
having a head at either extremity of their body. I never imagined they sim- 
ply turned round in their cases. I had to tear open several of the cases before 
1 was convinced that I had been labouring under a delusion and that the 
caterpillars were single-headed like any other. 
The habits of Tineid caterpillars are extremely interesting—so very diverse, 
more so, perhaps, than those of any other division of the Lepidoptera. The 
caterpillars feed on leaves, pods, stored products, clothes, furs, hair, and 
underground on roots and stems, while, according to the Cambridge Natural 
History, there are some which subsist on dried dung, on the hairs of live sloths, 
on the horns of live antelopes, and even on scale insects. Ihave myself bred a 
species, the caterpillars of which I found feeding ona Ceroplastes, a scale pest 
of limes and guavas. Some, as with the house-inoth above mentioned, construct 
cases which they carry about with them. Others, on the contrary, prefer not 
to cumber themselves with such things. Some of the leaf-feeders fold leaves 
very neatly to forma dwelling, others fold them up in 2 rough crumple, much as 
when we take a bit of paper and squeeze it together in our hand, whereas others 
a gain web two leaves flatly together with a dense tough web or with a slight 
web, according to the species. Many are leaf-miners, and in their mining 
operations display great Ingenuity and engineering ability. One of the best 
examples of sich skill that has come under my observation is that furnished by 
aC aterpillar which feeds on the leaves of the wild potato vine (Ipomaa 
fastigiata). For feeding purposes as well as for purposes of concealment, it 
mates tunnels in a leaf. These tunnels open on the upper surface of the leaf, 
and are on different parts of it. Nevertheless, they are all connected by web 
under shelter of which the little engineer can pass from one to another. The 
web is thin and being on tension lies almost flat on the leaf except when the 
caterpillar is passing along to one of its tunnels. When not in use it is nearly 
invisible, and so is the caterpillar when it enters a tunnel. 
Some caterpillars are very careful to have their homes free of waste matter. 
There is a Tineid caterpillar, for instanée, which feeds on the leaves of the 
creole coffee. It inhabits the space formed by binding two leaves together 
with a little web. When an accimulation of droppings occurs it deliberately 
seizes it pellet by pellet and casts it out of its home. There is another cater- 
pillar which feeds on the old leaves of a species of Paullinia, and which 
adopts a different method to keep its home clean. On the upper surface of 
& leaf it spins a whitish web stretched like a sheet, and resembling some- 
what that spun by one of the leaping spiders (Attide). It makes its home in 
