HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



3D3 



by Yon Sclieven to Bombyx vestita F. (which Ochsenheimer 

 regards as synonymous with. Psyche gramineTl(i)\ while P. Vici- 

 ella of the Wiener Verzeichniss covers itself with short portions 

 of the stems of grasses placed transversely, and united by 

 means of silk into a five- or six-sided case. The habitation of 

 a third larva of the same family, described and figured by 

 Reaumur (P. graminella Ochsenh., just named), is composed 

 of squarish pieces of the leaves of grass fastened only at one 

 end, and overwrapping each other like the tiles of a house ; 

 and that of another noticed by the same author, of portions 

 of the smallest twigs of broom arranged on the same plan.^ 

 Indeed the larvse of the whole of this tribe of moths, now 

 separated into a distinct genus (^Psyche Schrank, Ochsenh., 

 Fiimea Haworth), but which, according to Germar, needs 

 further subdivision, reside in cases or sacks (whence they are 

 called by the Germans Sacktrdger) composed of silk, and 

 fragments of grass, bark, &c.^ 



The larvae of a small beetle ( Clytra longimana) reside in 

 oviform cases, apparently of a calcareous or earthy substance, 

 joined by a gummy cement, and covered with red hairs, the 

 origin of which Hiibner, who first discovered them, could 

 not account for ; and from the observations of Amstein and 

 the French translator of Fuessly's Archives^ it seems probable 

 that the larvae of all the species of Clytra, and, according to 

 Zschorn, at least of one species of Cryptocephalus (C. duo- 

 decimpunctatus), live in moveable cases ^; as do also the larva? 

 of Chlamys, a splendid Brazilian genus of the same family, 

 and those of the equally brilliant genus Lamprosoma, forming 

 them of their excrement, which in the former assume a sin- 

 gular appearance, from a very large and conical hollow mantle 

 fitted to the mouth of the case.^ The larvae of a species of 

 Limnius (X. ceneus) inhabit a fixed case made of particles of 



1 Reaum. ili. 148, 149. n. 1 1. f. 10, 1 J. 



2 In the hotter regions of the globe, this group is replaced by the gigantic 

 Oiketici, several species of which have been figured by the late L. Guilding in 

 the Transactions of the Linncaan Society. The cases of some of these insects 

 exhibit an extraordinary degree of instinct in their construction, and are of a 

 much larger size than a hen's egg. (See Westw. Mod. Class. Ins. ii. 388.) 



3 Fuessly, Archiv. 53. t. 31. Germar's Mag. fur Ent. i. 136. 



4 Westwood in Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. iii. proc. xxviii 



