HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 405 



which composes it being of a grey colour, at a distan^fe it 

 would be taken for a mass of lichens. Sometimes this nest is 

 upwards of eighteen inches long, and six broad, rising in the 

 middle about four inches from the surface of the tree. Be- 

 tween the trunk and the silken covering, a single hole is left 

 which serves for the entrance and exit of the inhabitants. 

 These differ in their manners from those last mentioned. 

 While very young they have no fixed habitation, contenting 

 themselves with a succession of different temporary camps 

 until they have attained two thirds of their growth. Then it 

 is they unite their labours in spinning the nest just described; 

 and in this they continue to reside in harmony until they be- 

 come perfect insects, assuming in it even the state of chry- 

 salis. ^ 



Habitations similar, as to their general structure, to the 

 above, though differing in several minute circumstances, are 

 formed by the larvte of several other moths, as of Porthesia 

 phceorrhcea, Clisiocampa neustria, &c., as well as those of Va- 

 nessa lo, Melitcea Cinxia, and some other butterflies^, and even 

 of some saw-flies (^Serrifera^, which, however, have each a se- 

 parate silken covering. But as it would be tedious to describe 

 these particularly, I pass on to the habitations formed by in- 

 sects in their perfect state, which have in view the education 

 of their young as well as of self-preservation, describing in 

 succession those of ants, bees, wasps, and white ants. 



Of these the most simple in their structure are the nests of 

 different kinds of ants, many of which externally present the 

 appearance of hillocks more or less conical, formed of earth or 

 other substances. 



The nest of the large red or horse ants {F. rnfa), which are 

 common in woods, at the first aspect seems a very confused 

 mass. Exteriorly it is a conical mount composed of pieces of 

 straw, fragments of wood, little stones, leaves, grain; in short, 

 of any portable materials within their reach. But however 



1 Reaum. ii. 179. 



2 The habits of a Mexican species of butterfly {Eucheira socialis Westw.), of 

 which the larvae construct a strong white parchment-like bag, in which they re- 

 side and undergo their transformations, have been described by Mr. Westwood 

 in the Trans, of the Ent. Soc. of London, vi. pi. vi. 



D D 3 



