18 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



species employ those contrivances during the period 

 of their hybernation, or winter-sleep. For all these 

 purposes some dig holes in the earth, and form them 

 into cells ; others build nests of extraneous substances, 

 such as bits of wood and leaves ; others roll up leaves 

 into cases, which they close with the most curious 

 art ; others build a house of mud, and line it with 

 the cotton of trees, or the petals of the most delicate 

 flowers ; others construct cells, of secretions from 

 their own bodies ; others form cocoons, in which 

 they undergo their transformation ; and others dig 

 subterraneous galleries, which, in complexity of ar- 

 rangement, in solidity, and in complete adaptation to 

 their purposes, vie with the cities of civilized man. 

 The contrivances by which insects effect these ob- 

 jects have been accurately observed and minutely de- 

 scribed, by patient and philosophical inquirers, who 

 knew that such employments of the instinct with 

 which each species is endowed by its Creator offered 

 the most valuable and instructive lessons, and opened 

 to them a wide field of the most delightful study. 

 The construction of their habitations is certainly 

 among the most remarkable peculiarities in the 

 economy of insects ; and it is of this subject that we 

 propose to treat under the general name, which is 

 sufficiently applicable to our purpose, of Insect 

 Architecture. 



