276 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



[ 



CH. XVI. 



assume the form of a perfect insect, it gets rid of its 

 chrysalid envelope by the efforts which it makes to 

 pass through the end of the cylinder: this being 

 narrower than the body of the insect, scrapes off, 

 and retains the skin. 



The habitation of a small leaf-rolling caterpillar 

 is curious, from the pains taken to place it in a per- 

 pendicular position on the leaf itself. For this pur- 

 pose a portion of the leaf is cut off in the manner 

 represented in the annexed figure. Before it cuts in 



; 



the direction of c d the leaf is bent as seen injlg. 2. 

 In effecting this object, the caterpillar employs the 

 means already described: it mounts the threads, 

 and contracts them by the weight of its own body. 

 The leaf having been thus bent is then cut in the 

 direction c 6, and rolled up as near the perpendicu- 

 lar as possible. 



There is another caterpillar whose proceedings are 

 somewhat similar ; it rolls up into a trumpet-shaped 



