232 STATES OF INSECTS. 



walls, concludes its labours a . It is to be lamented that 

 Reaumur was unacquainted with the moth that proceeds 

 from the pupae inclosed in these ingenious cocoons ; 

 which being small, and precisely of the same colour as 

 the bark of the twig that supports them, are not to be 

 discovered but by a very narrow inspection. It would 

 seem, however, to be Noctua Singula of Berkhausen, 

 Pyralis strigulalis of Hubner b . The larva, he informs 

 us, is found in May : its body is flatter than common, of 

 a yellowish flesh-colour, clothed with tufts of red hair on 

 each segment, and furnished with fourteen feet. Should 

 this description enable you to detect it upon your oaks, 

 a view of its ingenious procedures would amply repay 

 you for the trouble of seeking for it. The larvae of Ce- 

 ntra vi?iula, Stauropus Fagi, and several other moths, 

 form their cocoons of grains of wood gnawed from the 

 trees on which they feed. These grains they masticate, 

 mixed with a glutinous fluid secreted from the mouth, 

 into a paste, which forms a covering of an uniform smooth 

 texture, and so hard as not readily to yield to a knife. 

 Of a substance apparently nearly similar is composed 

 the cocoon of a weevil related to Liparus Pini • which 

 with its inhabitant was given me by the ingenious Mr. 

 Bullock. A little moth, whose ravages have been before 

 noticed c , lines the interior of the grain of barley, of 

 which it has devoured the contents, with silk ; divides it 

 into two apartments, into one of which it pushes the ex- 

 crement ithad voided, and in theother assumes thepupa d . 

 These, and the other larvae mentioned above, com- 



a Reaura. i. 54,5—. b j> ljra i s.3. L iii./. 16. 



c See above. Vol. [.p. 1/2 . 



d Reaum. ii. 491. 



