FAMILY HABITS IN BUTTERFLY LARVjE THE URBICOLIDS. 17 



As the larva grows it changes its shelter, making at each side a larger 

 one, until, at last, it folds over an entire leaf, or brings two or more 

 leaves together, so as to make a sufficiently large hiding-place. Scudder 

 asserts that, " on leaving one abode to construct a new one, the larva 

 always bites away the strands which have kept the flap securely in 

 place, which then parts a little more widely from the leaf, and often 

 regains a position at right angles to it." The very young larva of the 

 allied Thanaos persius constructs a nest by folding a flap of a leaf of 

 willow or poplar over upon the underside, although, later, it folds it 

 invariably upon the upperside ; the nest appears to be made always 

 near the middle of a leaf near the midrib, includes no part of the edge, 

 is usually oval in outline (at first not more than 5mm. in diameter, but 

 double in the next stage), the edges attached by pretty long and distant 

 shrouds to the surface of the leaf and the midrib. Tho young larva 

 of Thanaos juvenalis constructs its retreat by folding a piece of leaf of 

 oak or hazel downwards, and fastening it in the desired place by long 

 strands of golden-coloured silk, very strongly attached at the 

 extremities ; occasionally, however, the piece of leaf is folded upwards, 

 and is then much more conspicuous ; openings are left at the side, and, 

 where the edges of the leaf do not quite touch, the space is filled in 

 with a network of delicate tissue-like silk of the same colour. Riley 

 observed in one case that a larva had fastened a lobe of one leaf to 

 another leaf just below it, and so formed a retreat, the attachment 

 being made by stout cords of yellowish silk, the bases of the cords 

 being broader to give them greater strength. 



Of the nest-making of the Indian Hesperiines, Davidson and 

 Aitken give (Journ. Bomb. Nat. Hist. Soc, v., p. 370) some interesting 

 details. The larva of Tagiades atticus cuts out an oval piece from a 

 leaf of Dioscorea, with the margin deeply toothed or scalloped ; this is 

 left attached by a narrow neck, including one of the principal veins of 

 the leaf, and bent over so as to form a cell with open archways all 

 round. The larva of Celaenorrhinns fuscum lives on the upperside of 

 a leaf of Strobilanthus, cutting off and turning over a portion to serve 

 as a roof, that of C. leucocera makes its hiding-place of a leaf of 

 Erantliemum, but does not scallop the edge of its cell. The young larva 

 of Badamia exclamationis makes a tight cylindrical cell at the edge of a 

 leaf of Combretum externum, and, when fullgrown, a retreat very 

 like that constructed by Hasora chabrona. The nest-making habits of 

 others are described (op. cit., xi., pp. 22 et seq.) by the same observers, 

 e.g., the larva of Hesperia galba doubles over a part of a leaf of 

 Waltheria indica, a little straggling ground weed, fastening down the 

 edges of the cell thus formed, and lining the inside strongly with silk. 

 The larva of Caprona ransonnetii makes its cell by cutting a circular 

 piece out of a leaf of Helicteres isora, leaving this piece attached by a 

 hinge, turning it over upon the top of the leaf, where it is fixed down 

 by silk, and strongly lined inside with the same material, the piece 

 soon withering to a brown colour ; when nearly fullfed the cell is 

 made by turning a large piece from the edge over to the underside, 

 and fixing it there loosely with silk, the larva resting on the roof of the 

 cell with its back towards the ground. The habit of the young larva of 

 Coladenia tissa is similar to those of the last two species, but, in the 

 manner of making its cell, it differs, cutting right across a leaf from 

 edge to edge, about the middle, and at right angles to the midrib, 



