HABITATIONS OF INSECTS, '293 



Of this description are the majority of subterranean larvae, and those which 

 feed on wood ; as the Bostrichi or labyrinth beetles ; the Anobia, which 

 excavate the little circular holes frequently met with in ancient furniture 

 and the wood-work of old houses ; and many larvae of other orders, 

 particulaly Lcpidoptera. One of these last, the larva of Cossus ligniperda, 

 differs from its congeners in fabricating for its residence during winter a 

 habitation of pieces of wood lined with fine silk.^ Under this division, too, 

 come the singular habitations of the subcutaneous larvae, so called from the 

 circumstance of their feeding upon the parenchyma included between the 

 upper and under cuticles of the leaves of plants, between which, though 

 the whole leaf is often not thicker than a sheet of writing-paper, they find 

 at once food and lodging. You must have been at some time struck by 

 certain white zigzag or labyrinth-like lines on the leaves of the dandelion, 

 bramble, and numerous other plants: the next time you meet with one of 

 them, if you hold it up to the light you will perceive that the color of 

 these lines is owing to the pulpy substance of the leaf having there been 

 removed ; and at the further end you will probably remark a dark-colored 

 speck, which, when carefully extricated from iis covering, you will find 

 to be the little miner of the tortuous galleries which you are admiring. 

 Some of these minute larve, to which the parenchyma of a leaf is a vast 

 country, requiring several weeks to be traversed by the slow process of 

 mining which they adopt — that of eating the excavated materials as they 

 proceed — are transformed into beetles (^Cionus thapsi, &.c.) ; others into 

 flies ; and a still greater number into very minute moths, as Heriheia 

 Clerkella, he. Many of these last are little miracles of nature, which 

 has lavished on them the most splended tints tastefully combined with 

 gold, silver and pearl ; so that, were they but formed upon a larger scale, 

 they would far eclipse oil other animals in richness of decoration. 



Another tribe of larvae, not very numerous, content themselves for their 

 habitations with simple holes, into which they retire occasionally. Many 

 of these are merely cylindrical burrows in the ground, as those formed by 

 the larvae of field-crickets, Cicindelae, and Ephemerae. But the larvae of 

 the very remarkable lepidopterous genus (^Nycterobius of Mr. MacLeay) 

 before alluded to, excavate for themselves dwellings of a more artificial 

 construction ; forming cylindrical holes in the trees of New Holland, 

 particularly the different species of Banksia, to which they are very de- 

 structive, and defending the entrance against the attacks of the Mantes 

 and other carnivorous insects by a sort of trap-door composed of silk inter- 

 woven with leaves and pieces of excrement, securely fastened at the upper 

 end, but left loose at the lower for the free passage of the occupant. 

 This abode they regularly quit at sunset, for the purpose of laying in a 

 store of the leaves on which they feed. These they drag by one at a 

 time into their cell until the approach of light, when they retreat precipi- 

 tately into it, and there remain closely secluded the whole day, enjoying 

 the booty which their nocturnal range has provided. One species lifts up 

 the loose end of its door by its tail, and enters backward, dragging after 

 it a leaf of BanJcsia serrata, which it holds by the foot-stalk.^ 



A third description of larvae, chiefly of the two lepidopterous tribes of 

 Tortricida and TineidcB, form into convenient habitations the leaves of 



' Lyonet, Anat. of Coss. 9. * Lewin's Prudromus Entom. p. 8. 



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