THE HEDGEHOG NEST. 
377 
pupal states, she seems to return to her former condition, and 
would be taken by any ordinary observer for a caterpillar of 
more than ordinary fatness. She has no wings, and no legs to 
speak of, these members being needless in a creature that never 
changes her position. It is rather curious that the males should 
ever be able to find their spouses, but they are probably led by 
an instinct which we cannot comprehend, as is the case with 
several of the larger British moths. 
The male is a rather small though stoutly made insect, and 
is not at all attractive in colour, being simple brown, with a few 
black markings on the wings. The antennae, however, are very 
beautiful, being doubly feathered, like those of the Housebuilder 
Moth, to which the insect is closely allied, the feathering being 
widest at the base, and narrowing gradually to the tip. The 
whole of the body is clothed with long, dense, and soft hair, 
of a pale brown, and having a silken lustre. These beautiful 
nests were brought to the Museum by E. H. Armitage, Esq., 
who kindly presented me with the specimens which have been 
described 
A somewhat similar nest, but of a much more formidable 
aspect, was discovered by W. B. Lord, Esq., R. A., and has been 
figured in the Hoys* Own Magazine for August, 1864. The shape 
of the nest is very remarkable, and is exactly that of a soda- 
water bottle, suspended by its neck. A very tolerable imitation 
of this curious nest could be made by coating a soda-water 
bottle with clay, and sticking it full of porcupine quills, with 
the points radiating on every side. The following is Mr. Lords 
own description : — 
‘ On looking closely at the thorny, sinuous branches, we shall 
see a number of little pendent prickly things, each hanging to 
its own silken cord, like juvenile hedgehogs “lynched” by the 
fairies of the spring. 
4 These are a peculiar species of “ tree-caddis,” which, as far 
as I know, are as yet undescribed by anyone. Their cases are 
curiously armed with thorns, nipped from the tree on which 
they hang. The thorns are all disposed with their points out- 
