Miscellaneous. 



439 



(fig. b) ; this however is formed by the addition of strips cut off 

 several leaves. This it effects by fastening the tip of a fresh leaf to 



the top of its half-formed case, and then thrusting its head and fore- 

 part of its body out of its case, it commences biting off the fresh 

 strip, bending it downwards and twisting it round in the same direc- 

 tion as the part already formed. 



The full-grown larva is nearly an inch long, of a green dirty colour, 

 with two six-jointed antennae, two moderate- sized globose black 

 eyes, three pairs of thoracic legs, and a pair of laterally porrected 

 slender three-jointed feeler-like organs attached to the extremity of 

 the underside of the last segment of the body, which is flattened 

 beneath. Fig. c. represents the larva taken out of its case and mag- 

 nified. When taken out of their cases they appear for a considerable 

 time very uneasy, writhing about without any regularity, but spin- 

 ning a number of very delicate silken threads on the underside of 

 the leaves, pushing themselves by degrees between the under surface 

 of the leaves and this bundle of threads ; they then draw the threads 

 more tightly at the edges of the leaves, causing them to curl a little, 

 this being effected by passing the head from side to side, and then 

 returning, fastening the thread, spun from the mouth, at each extre- 

 mity. 



We have been particular in describing the proceedings of this 

 insect, as it is the only instance we have ever met with in which a 

 case-making larva does not at once detach the particles of which it 

 constructs its case from the leaves or twigs, previous to attaching 

 them to its case, thereby rendering the case portable. In the pre- 

 sent instance, of course, the case is only strictly portable when the 

 entire strip is detached from the leaf. Moreover this insect differs 

 very greatly in its habits from those of the previously noticed species 

 of the genus to which it belongs*. 



As the larva disappears at the end of July and the imago does not 

 appear till the following May, there is no doubt that the intervening 

 time is passed in the pupa state, most probably underground. — 

 I. O. W. — Gardeners' Chronicle for Oct. 16. 



* A Memoir, by Huber, on a species with precisely similar habits, but 

 which forms its roll of hazel-leaves, is given in the ' Memoires de la Societe 

 de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Geneve,' torn. ix. 1842, of which a 



