The prettiest of these parcels are those which are made upon a kind of osier, the borders of whose leaves sometimes form columnar bundles before they become developed. A section of these leaves has the appearance of filigree-work (see _b_).
[Illustration: Nest of Willow-leaf Roller.]
A caterpillar which feeds upon the willow, and whose singular attitudes have obtained for it the trivial name of _Ziczac_, also constructs for itself an arbour of the leaves, by drawing them together in an ingenious manner. M. Roesel[BK] has given a tolerable representation of this nest, and of the caterpillar. The caterpillar is found in June; and the moth (_Notodonta ziczac_) from May to July in the following year (see cut, p. 151).
Beside those caterpillars which live solitary in the folds of a leaf, there are others which associate, employing their united powers to draw the leaves of the plants they feed upon into a covering for their common protection. Among these we may mention the caterpillar of a small butterfly, the plantain or Glanville fritillary (_Melitea cinxia_), which is very scarce in this country.
[Illustration: Ziczac Caterpillar and Nest.]
Although a colony of these caterpillars is not numerous, seldom amounting to a hundred individuals, the place which they have selected is not hard to discover. Their abode may be seen in the meadow in form of a tuft of herbage covered with a white web, which may readily be mistaken, at first view, for that of a spider, but closer inspection soon corrects this notion. It is, in fact, a sort of common tent, in which the whole brood lives, eats, and undergoes the usual transformations. The shape of this tent, for the most part, approaches the pyramidal, though that depends much upon the natural growth of the herbage which composes it. The interior is divided into compartments formed by the union of several small tents, as it were, to which others have been from time to time added according to the necessities of the community.
When they have devoured all the leaves, or at least those which are most tender and succulent, they abandon their first camp, and construct another contiguous to it under a tuft of fresh leaves. Several of these encampments may sometimes be seen within the distance of a foot or two, when they can find plantain (_Plantago lanceolata_) fit for their purpose; but though they prefer this plant, they content themselves with grass if it is not to be procured.