HABITATIONS OF INSECTS- 467 



by these insects is not confined to the quantity of materials 

 consumed in clothing and feeding themselves. In mov- 

 ing from place to place they seem to be as much in- 

 commoded by the long hairs which surround them, as we 

 are by walking amongst high grass; and accordingly, 

 marching scythe in hand, with their teeth they cut out a 

 smooth road, from time to time reposing themselves, and 

 anchoring their little case with small silken cables. 



If, as I hope, you are induced to investigate the man-* 

 ners of these insects, you have but to leave an old coat 

 for a few months undisturbed in a dark closet, and you 

 may be pretty certain of meeting with an abundant 

 colony. 



Not merely wool or hair, but another substance analo- 

 gous to one employed in our dress, is adopted for their 

 clothing by other insects. The larva of a fly which lives 

 on the seeds of willows, makes itself a very beautiful case 

 of their cottony down, not only impervious to wet and 

 cold, but serving, if accidentally blown into the water, 

 which from the situation of these trees frequently happens, 

 as a buoyant little barge which is wafted safely to the 

 shore 3 . 



The habitations which we have hitherto been consider- 

 ing, are formed by larvae that live on land, but others 

 equally remarkable are constructed by aquatic species, 

 the larvae of the various Phryganecc, a tribe of four-winged 

 insects which an ordinary observer would call moths, but 

 which are even of a distinct order b , not having their wings 

 covered by the scales which adorn thelepidopterous race. 



a Reaum. iii. 130. b See Kirby in Linn. Trans, xi. 88, 



where it is proposed to call this order Triehoptera. 



2 II 2 



