SOCIAL NESTS. 
53 
form such a complete labyrinth, you would 
wonder how those that live in the middle can 
ever find their right quarters. But passages 
are made, and left open in order to guide them 
and prevent any confusion. Here they live all 
winter, and in the spring they resume their 
active habits, and make excursions in search of 
food. But however far they may ramble, there 
is no fear of losing themselves. Each caterpillar 
weaves a thread as it goes, so that their paths 
may be said to be carpetted with silk. In the 
summer the colony breaks up, and the caterpillars 
seek, each one, a retired spot, where it undergoes 
its change into a chrysalis state. 
But we can find another colony of caterpillars* 
if we look in the meadows. They feed on the 
plaintain, and unite in drawing the leaves 
together, and making a nest as much the shape 
of a tent as the grass will let them. It too, 
might be taken for a spider’s web; and like the 
other, is divided into a number of apartments, 
that are added one after the other as the cater¬ 
pillars get larger. When the colony has eaten 
up all the tender leaves beneath the awning, 
it abandons that place, and weaves a new tent 
in another. Thus the caterpillars are a little 
like the wandering Arab, who strikes his tent as 
* Melitea cinxia. 
