FORMICA LEO. 201 
Lucy, What a long time it must 
require to manufacture this curious case ! 
Mother. It is a creature endowed 
with much patience and perseverance, 
and may serve as an example to those^ 
who think nothing worth executing which 
cannot be at once accomplished. 
, Having completed this outward sandy 
shell it proceeds to line the interioi* 
with many layers of still finer and 
softer silk, as shining as satin, and of a 
pure white. 
Lucy, If people were to take the same 
pains with the lion ant that they do with 
the silk worm, they might perhaps ob- 
tain silk to weave, which would be na- 
turally white. 
Mother, It seems possible ; but the 
length of this animal's life would make 
it a far more tedious and uncertain busi- 
ness than the management of the silk 
worm, which lives but a short time. 
Within this satin nest our larva divests 
itself of its skin, and becomes a chrysalis ; 
the body much lengthened, and bentround, 
K 5 
