190 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



the colder months of winter, before the arrival of 

 which it scoops out a hollow in the tree, if it do not 

 find one ready prepared, sufficiently large to contain 

 its body in a bent or somewhat coiled up position. 

 On sawing off a portion of an old poplar in the 

 winter of 1827, we found such a cell with a cater- 

 pillar coiled up in it. 



mntcr Nest of the Ooat-CatrrpiUar. 



It had not, however, been contented with the bare 

 walls of the retreat which it had hewn out of the tree, 

 for it had lined it with a fabric as thick as coarse 

 broad-cloth, and equally warm, composed of the rasp- 

 ings of the wood scooped out of the cell, united with the 

 strong silk which every species of caterpillar can spin. 

 In this snug retreat our caterpillar, if it had not been 

 disturbed, would have spent the winter without eat- 

 ing ; but upon being removed into a warm room and 

 placed under a glass along with some pieces of wood, 

 which it might eat if so inclined, it was roused for a 

 time from its dormant state, and began to move 

 about. It was not long, however, in constructing a 

 new cell for itself, no less ingenious than the former. 

 It either could not gnaw into the fir plank, where it 

 was now placed with a glass above it, or it did not 

 choose to do so ; for it left it untouched, and made it 

 the basis of the edifice it began to construct. It 



