224 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



whole thickness, but artfully separated from the 

 upper layer, as a person might separate one of the 

 leaves of paper from a sheet of pasteboard. 



VS^>^~ 



The tents of this class of caterpillars, which are 

 found on the elm, the alder, and other trees with ser- 

 rated leaves, are much in the shape of a minute 

 gold-fish. They are convex on the back, where the 

 indentations of the leaf out of which they have 

 been cut add to the resemblance, by appearing like 

 the dorsal fins of the fish. By depriving one of those 

 caterpillars common on the hawthorn of its tent, 

 for the sake of experiment, we put it under the ne- 

 cessity of making another; for, as Pliny remarks of 

 the clothes-moth, they will rather die of hunger than 

 feed unprotected. When we placed it on a fresh 

 hawthorn leaf, it repeatedly examined every part of it, 

 as if seeking for its lost tent, though, when this was 

 put in its way, it would not again enter it ; but, after 

 some delay, commenced a new one." 



For this purpose, it began to eat through one of 

 the two outer membranes which compose the leaf 

 and enclose the pulp (parenchyma), some of which, 

 also, it devoured, and then thrust the hinder part 

 of its body into the perforation. The cavity, how- 

 ever, which it had formed, being yet too small for 

 its reception, it immediately resumed the task of 

 making it larger. By continuing to gnaw into the 

 * J. R. 



