LETTERS ON ENTOMOLOGY. 55 
square or round, or of any regular figure, but 
extremely irregular, yet the two pieces fit exactly. 
The next thing is to fasten them together, and 
this they do with silken threads so neatly, that 
the joining can hardly be discerned with a 
microscope. But the most remarkable thing is, 
that they vary their operations according to cir- 
cumstances, and seldom do all alike ; for instance, 
if the leaf is too dry to separate the membranes, 
they will cut it out altogether. When they 
grow too large for their clothes, they make new. 
They may be found where the leaf is transparent, 
with a hole. 
Another kind cover themselves with little 
straws and dried stalks, which look very ridi- 
culous, and have the same effect as if our clothes 
were covered with rows of sticks. 
Land insects are not the only ones which want 
clothes. The aquatic kinds make them also, 
some of very fine sand, some of gravel, some of 
flat leaves, some of round stalks. Others arrange, 
with great taste, pieces of leaves round their 
coats; they appear bound with green ribbon. 
Others make use of every thing; fresh leaves 
and old rotten ones, pieces of wood new and old, 
gravel, small stones, pieces of shell, and even 
whole ones; nothing seems to come amiss. 
