166 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



exerted the whole muscles of his body to shorten his 

 threads, and pull down the edge of the leaf. When 

 he had drawn the threads as tight as he could, he 

 held them till he spun fresh ones of sufficient strength 

 to retain the leaf in the bent position into which he 

 had pulled it. He then left the first series to hang 

 loose while he shortened the fresh spun ones as be- 

 fore. This process was continued till he had worked 

 down about an inch and a half of the leaf, as much 

 as he deemed sufficient for his habitation. This was 

 the first part of the architecture. 



By the time he had worked to the end of the fold 

 he had brought the edge of the leaf to touch the 

 mid-rib ; but it was only held in this position by a 

 few of the last spun threads, for all the first spun 

 ones hung loose within. Apparently aware of this, 

 the insect protruded more than half of its body 

 through the small aperture left at the end, and spun 

 several bundles of threads on the outside precisely 

 similar to those ropes of a tent which extend beyond 

 the canvass, and are pegged into the ground. Un- 

 willing to trust the exposure of his whole body on 

 the outside, lest he should be seized by the first sand- 

 wasp (odynerus) or sparrow which might descry him, 

 he now withdrew to complete the internal portion of 

 his dwelling, where the threads were hanging loose 

 and disorderly. For this purpose he turned his head 

 about, and proceeded precisely as he had done at the 

 beginning of his task, but taking care to spin his new 

 threads so as to leave the loose ones on the outside, 

 and make his apartment smooth and neat. When he 

 again reached the opposite end, he constructed there 

 also a similar series of cables on the outside, and 

 then withdrew to give some final touches to the in- 

 terior. 



It. is said by Kirby and Spence *, that when these 

 * Inlrod. vol. i. p. 467. 



