1830 .] 
Account of a curious Insect. 
280 
At first the threads appeared to wave loosely in the air, but all at once I observed 
that the whole skein began to give a curve, as if pulled out of the perpendicular • 
and following the direction with the eye, I now discovered that our tiny work- 
people were busy on another tack. At some distance, on one side, stood a teapoy, 
and favoured, I presume, by the action of the air, the insects had fastened the ends 
of what first appeared to be merely floating threads, to the teapoy — and they 
tugged so heartily at the end of the threads, that the movement, as they ‘ hauled 
taut,’ was distinctly visible. The threads then had changed their direction thus, 
as represented in fig. 2. 
a The Punka Fringe, b The Teapoy, and the Insects fastening and tightening 
the threads. 
While thus engaged, they made no ceremony of alighting on one’s hands and 
face ; and when they did so, the sensation was stinging as if an ant had bitten 
one— but not so severe. On examining, with a pocket magnifier, they looked 
exactly like little caterpillars, and I have no doubt but they are the larvce of some 
insect— but of what kind of insect, I know not. On the cloth of the punka 
fringe there was a tuft, as it were, of downy moss— and this I suspect was the nest 
out of which they issued and which I presume stuck to the cloth when it was 
spread on the grass, by some tank side, to dry. As it was late in the evening, I had 
no time to make further observations — even if the presence of the insects, (which 
was close to a lady’s dressing glass,) had not begun to be felt as an annoyance. 
The more we looked, the more encroaching did they appear to become — until one 
of the servants, before I was aware of her intention, at one fell swoop, almost 
annihilated them and their labours. I have managed, however, to preserve a few 
