Dec., 1892. 
DOMICILES. 
275 
brief tale is enough to show in a convincing manner how 
complete the concealment of this larva has been made by 
nature. Their history has been made out somewhat as follows: 
At first they are gregarious, when hatched from the egg ; they 
draw two leaves together, lie low like Brer Babbit during 
the day, and then, when the dark conceals them, they 
come forth from the lair and eat the leaves, always returning 
before the dawn. After the first few weeks they develop more 
solitary habits ; each spins his own hermitage, like the 
one which I exhibit, and in this they continue to reside all the 
hours of daylight, till the time comes for them to change into 
chrysalides ; they have then obviously no need to spin 
cocoons; their domicile becomes their pupa-case, “in life 
their hermitage, in death their tomb ”—as the poet says, or 
ought to say. 
The two last specimens which I exhibit are given as 
instances of the complete way in which the pupa-cases of 
some insects are hidden out of sight, even though there may 
be no covering at all, or nothing but the flimsiest web of 
transparent silk. One of these grubs was feeding on heather, 
and the other on Scotch fir ; in both cases I had not kept 
the caterpillar before, and did not know what he would do ; 
in both cases he lived in a small jampot with the least little 
tuft of his plant to eat. And yet, when they came to spin, 
though I knew they were there, I had the greatest difficulty to 
find them. I had in each case to cut away the plant, until 
there was nothing left to hide them ; and then, of course, 
I saw them. You will, see—though only the core of the 
tufts is left—how very easily they could escape notice even 
now. 
Of the remaining families one word will suffice. The 
Geometers or looping caterpillars—what the Americans call 
“ Inchbugs ”—are sufficiently protected by their resemblance 
to sticks ; but the two families of very small grubs have well- 
marked domiciles. The Tortrices are so called from their 
habit of rolling the tips or comers of leaves ; here they dwell, 
as all people fond of a garden know by the way they roll up 
the rose leaves in May and June. The last family, the Tinese, 
are, perhaps, not so well known, though everybody must 
have seen their domiciles. The bulk of them live in a very 
safe house, between the upper and the lower cuticle of the 
leaf; these cuticles form the walls of their house, and the 
green stuff between the walls is their food ; so they have all 
they want at hand : protection and food. If anything happens 
to the leaf—if it is plucked, or falls, or a large larva eats it— 
then, of course, they are done; but mostly they are very safe 
