PAYTA. 



169 



lines to the inferior edge of this web^ so as to 

 form a maSs resembling a cube in shape^ and 

 is thus enveloped altogether in the covering 

 which it has spun for its own protection^ until 

 the change is completed. Whereupon it de- 

 taches itself from this veil which, however, still 

 continues to hang to the tree, and becoming 

 whitened by the sun, floats in the wind like 

 a flag. The naturalist, Antonio Pineda, sent 

 a piece of this paper to Madrid, and the Jesuit 

 Calancha possessed a specimen on which he 

 wrote a letter.* 



* There is also a great paper destroyer as well as paper 

 maker in this country, in the shape of an ant called by 

 the Spaniards el comejen. Reams of paper have been 

 eaten through by this ant in an incredibly short time, so 

 as to make it perfectly useless. A story is related of some 

 reams of paper having been sent out from Spain, which 

 never reaching the hands to which they were destined, 

 caused a correspondence between the head of the 

 Customs and the government in Europe. The statement 



VOL. II. I 



