610 HOMES WITHOUT H.UfDS. 



open so as to allow the extremities of the caterpillar to protrude. 

 One object in this structure is, to enable the inmate to turn in its 

 cell, an operation which must necessarily be performed whenever 

 the tubular home is enlarged. The process of enlargement is 

 continually going, on, and it is in consequence of this proceeding 

 that so much material is used. 



The manner in which the little creature enlarges its home is 

 as follows : — 



Without quitting its tubular home, it cuts a longitudinal slit 

 throughout half its length or so, and opens the case to the re- 

 quired width. It then proceeds to weave a triangular piece of 

 webbing, with which it fills up the opened slit, and joins the 

 edges with perfect accuracy. As one end of the case is now 

 larger than the other, the caterpillar turns its attention to the 

 other end, cuts it open, widens it, and fills up the gap pre- 

 cisely as it had done to the first part. When the soft tube is 

 sufficiently widened, it is lengthened by the addition of rings to 

 each extremity. 



By taking advantage of this peculiar method of house-making, 

 obsei-vant persons have forced the Clothes Moth to make their 

 tubular homes of any colour and almost of any pattern. By 

 shifting the caterpillar from one coloured cloth to another, the 

 required tints are produced, and the pattern is gained by watch- 

 ing the creature at work, and transferring it at the proper 

 season. For example, a very pretty specimen can be produced 

 by turning out of its original home a half-grown caterpillar, 

 and putting it on a piece of bright green cloth. After it has 

 made its tube, it can be shifted to a black cloth, and when it has 

 cut the longitudinal slit, and has half filled it up, it can be trans- 

 ferred to a piece of scarlet cloth, so that the complementary 

 colours of green and scarlet are brought into juxtaposition, and 

 " thrown out " by the contrast with the black. 



The caterpillar is not very particular as to the kind of material 

 which it employs, and on which it feeds. Mr. Eennie makes the 

 following observations on one of these creatures, whose proceed- 

 ings he had watched. " The caterpillar first took up its abode 

 in a specimen of the ghost-moth {H^pialus humuli), where, find- 

 ing few suitable materials for building, it had recourse to the 

 cork of the drawer, with the chips of which it made a structure, 

 almost as warm as it would have done from wool. Whether it 



