92 
Journal of the 
numerous that they almost hide the dome. The third, and to 
me most interesting species, is found on one of the peppermints, 
which I take to be the Eucalyptus meliodora , and builds tents 
that are conical when full sized, and when twenty or forty are 
together on one leaf, they make it look like a veritable soldiers' 
camp in miniature. These tents have the starting point at the 
apex, the additions being made pretty evenly all round the edge. 
When full sized, they are rather plain, with the appearance of a 
series of flounces round the lower half; but when first formed, 
and very small, they have a few or many glassy loops or threads 
lound the edge, often longer than the diameter of the tent. The 
scales of those first mentioned are from a quarter to half an inch 
wide; those of the last two seldom exceed an eighth of an inch in 
diameter. 
During last February, I noticed several young broods of the 
last species appearing on the leaves above-named ; and placing 
some under the binocular with the 1-inch objective, I found they 
presented a charming sight, much more beautiful and interesting 
than the old ones. Many of the tents were clear as crystal (the 
old ones being opaque white), generally with four to six strong 
ribs, and several of the before-mentioned loops; and where some 
were near each other, these long loops crossed and recrossed, and 
became soldered together in a fantastic style. Many were 
decidedly as beautiful as anything the Bohemian glass-blowers 
ever turned out of colourless glass, and often reminded me of their 
work. 
But while passing from one to another, I had the good fortune 
to find one that had just begun to build, and was then hard at 
work. I watched him for hours, my wife and daughter also 
taking many a peep at the little architect ; and as it gave to us 
intense pleasure to see “how the crystal palace was built/' I 
thought an account of the same might be interesting to the 
Society. 
I late VII., represents the larva when quite young. It is 
about one-fiftietli of an inch long, very flat, reddish yellow, with eyes 
redder still, and the spots and legs brown. Fig. 2 shows his house 
as seen from above, and Fig. 3 the same in section. He begins 
by sticking one drop of his crystal cement on the leaf, as'the 
foundation-stone of one of the pillars or ribs, and then ndds 
