164 INSECT ARCHITECTURE, 



with a single leaf, but weaves together as many as 

 there are in the bud where it may chance to have been 

 hatched, binding their discs so firmly with silk, that 

 all the force of the ascending sap, and the increasing 

 growth of the leaves cannot break through; a farther 

 expansion is of course prevented. The little inhabi- 

 tant in the mean while banquets securely on the par- 

 titions of its tent, eating door-ways from one apart- 

 ment into another, through which it can escape in 

 case of danger or disturbance. 



The leafits of the rose, it may be remarked, expand 

 in nearly the same manner as a fan, and the opera- 

 tions of this ingenious little insect retain them in the 

 form of a fan nearly shut. Sometimes, however, it 

 is not contented with one bundle of leafits, but by 

 means of its silken cords unites all which spring from 

 the same bud into a rain-proof canopy, under the 

 protection of which it can feast on the flower-bud, 

 and prevent it from ever blowing. 



In the instance of the currant leaves, the proceed- 

 ings of the grub are the same, but it cannot unite the 

 plaits so smoothly as in the case of the rose leafits, 

 and it requires more labour also, as the nerv- 

 ures being stiff, demand a greater effort to bend 

 them. When all the exertions of the insect prove 

 unavailing in its endeavours to draw the edges of a 

 leaf together, it bends them inwards as far as it can, 

 and weaves a close web of silk over the open space 

 between. This is well exemplified in one of the 

 commonist of our leaf-rolling caterpillars, which may 

 be found as early as February on the leaves of the 

 nettle and the white archangel {Lamium album.) 

 It is of a light dirty-green colour, spotted with black, 

 and covered with a few hairs. In its young state it 

 confines itself to the bosom of a small leaf, near the 

 insertion of the leaf-stalk, partly bending the edges 

 inwards, and covering in the interval with a silken 



