MOSS-BUILDING CATERPILLAR. 18.1 



composed of the leaves and branchlets of green moss, 

 which they cut into suitable pieces, detaching &t the 

 same time along with them a portion of the earth in 

 which they grow. They arrange these upon the 

 walls of their building with the moss on the outside, 

 and the earth on the inside, making a sort of vault 

 of the tiny bits of green moss turf, dug from the 

 surface of the wall. So neatly, also, are the several 

 pieces joined, that the whole might well be supposed 

 to be a patch of moss which had grown in form of 

 an oval tuft, a little more elevated than the rest 

 growing on the wall. When these caterpillars are 

 shut up in a box with some moss, without earth, 

 they construct with it cells in form of a hollow ball, 

 very prettily plaited and interwoven. 



Muss-Cell of Small Caterpillar (Bryophita perlaf) 



In May last (1829), we found on the walls of 

 Greenwich Park, a great number of caterpillars 

 whose manners bore some resemblance to those of 

 the grub described by M. Reaumur*. They were 

 of middle size, with a dull orange stripe along the 

 back ; the head and sides of the body black, and the 

 belly greenish. Their abodes were constructed with 

 ingenuity and care. A caterpillar of this sort ap- 

 pears to choose either a part where the mortar con- 

 tains a cavity, or it digs one suited to its design. 

 Over the opening of the hollow in the mortar, it 



m 2 



