456 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



most splendid tints tastefully combined with gold, silver 

 and pearl : so that, were they but formed upon a larger 

 scale, they would far eclipse all 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, Cicindelse and Ephemerae. 

 But the larvae of the very remarkable lepidopterous ge- 

 nus (Nijrtcrobius of Mr. MacLeay) before alluded to a , 

 excavate for themselves dwellings of a more artificial 

 construction ; forming cylindrical holes in the trees of 

 New Holland, particularly the different species of BanJc- 

 sta, to which they are very destructive, and defending 

 the entrance against the attacks of the Mantes and other 

 carnivorous insects by a sort of trap-door composed of 

 silk interwoven with leaves and pieces of excrement, se- 

 curely fastened at the upper end, but left loose at the 

 lower for the free passage of the occupant. This abode 

 they regularly quit at sun-set, 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 precipitately 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 Banksia ser- 

 rata, which it holds by the footstalk 5 . 



a P. 304,393. 



h JLewin's Procbomus Entomology (sic !), p. 8. 



