FOREST LIFE. 



203 



late July or in September undjr the low hanging 

 branches of some locust tree, and look so that the 

 leaves are clearly outlined against the sky, he may 

 see that the fernlike regularity of some of the com- 

 pound leaves is interrupted, several of the leaflets 

 being fastened together with silk so as to make a little 

 tube, which serves as a home for the builder. These 

 tubes are made in various ways ; sometimes the tips 

 of several pairs of opposite leaflets are brought to- 

 gether below the leaf-stalk and fastened with silk, 

 and the overlapping edges of the leaflets on each side 

 fastened in the same way ; thus is formed a roomy 

 chamber, within which the architect lives. 



The remains of such a nest is represented in Fig. 

 169. When this specimen was collected late one 





Fig. i6g. — Nest of a larva of the silver-spotted skipper. 



afternoon, the leaflets were all present on the stem ; 

 but when I went to photograph it the next morning 

 I found that the caterpillar during the night, having 

 nothing else to feed upon, had eaten the leaflets at 

 both ends of the nest. 



These nests are made by the larva of the silver- 

 spotted skipper, a butterflylike insect which flies from 



