4(56 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



—a cylindrical case open at both ends. The stuff of 

 which it is composed is the manufacture of the larva of 

 the Tinea, which incorporates wool or hair artfully cut 

 from our clothes or furniture, with silk drawn from its 

 own mouth, into a warm and thick tissue : and as this 

 would not be soft enough for its tender skin, it also lines 

 the inside of its coat with a layer of pure silk. Since 

 this suit of clothes during the earliest age of the insect 

 accurately fits its body, you will readily conceive that it 

 will frequently require enlarging. This the little occu- 

 pant accomplishes as dexterously as any tailor. If the 

 case merely requires lengthening, the task is easy. All 

 that is needful is to add a new ring of hair or wool and 

 silk to each end. But to enlarge it in width is not so 

 simple an affair. Yet it sets to work precisely as we 

 should, slitting the case on the two opposite sides, and 

 then adroitly inserting between them two pieces of the 

 requisite size. It does not, however, cut open the case 

 from one end to the other at once : the sides would se- 

 parate too far asunder, and the insect be left naked. It 

 therefore first cuts each side about halfway down, and 

 then after having filled up the fissure proceeds to cut 

 the remaining half: so that, in fact, four enlargements 

 are made, and four separate pieces inserted. — The co- 

 lour of the habit is always the same as that of the stuff 

 from which it is taken. Thus, if its original colour be 

 blue, and the insect previously to enlarging it be put 

 upon red cloth, the circles at the end and two stripes 

 down the middle will be red. If placed alternately upon 

 cloths of different hues, its dress will be parti-coloured 

 like that of a Harlequin.— The injury occasioned tons 



