THE MICRO-LEPIDOriERA, OR LEAF-MINERS. 27 



dipterous larvse. Sometimes I was inclined to consider them 

 the hirvse of saw-flies, but as they had no horny legs, it 

 seemed to me that they could not belong to these insects. 

 In fact, I persisted in the opinion that my leaf-miners were 

 dipterous larvre, till they assumed their last form — till they 

 showed me that they changed into true moths." It was of 

 the rose-leaf miner {Xcpficula anomella, Fig. 6) that De Geer 

 wrot(! thus, and it renders the species particularly interesting 

 when we know that it was the first of the miners which 

 attracted his particular attention, and subsequently led our 

 own naturalists, Westwood and Stainton, to the study of the 

 ]\Iicro-Lepidoptera. The little moth itself is frequently found 

 on our windows in the early spring, the dark grey or bronzy 

 wings tipped with violet, and silvery grey under-wings, deeply 

 fringed with delicate cilia, or minute moving organs resem- 

 bling hairs. All these microscopic moths are remarkable for 

 tlie extraordinary size of their scales, and many of them for 

 the rich metallic lustre, iridescent as the scales of a diamond 

 beetle. 



Cemiostoma scitella (Fig. 1) is a lovely microscopic moth, 

 which those who live in or near London will find no difficulty 

 in watching during its development and securing specimens of, 

 for the larva is abundant in July and August, disfiguring the 

 leaves of hawthorn, apple, and pear, with irregular flat brown 

 blotches, and if we hold one of the leaves to the light, the 

 little miner may be seen feeding busily. Also upon a still 

 evening, or on the sheltered side of a hedge, we find in the 

 month of June numbers of the small grey moths creeping 

 slowly about the leaves depositing eggs. Their minute size 

 renders the exceeding beauty of their wings indiscernible to 

 the naked eye, and it is difficult to mount them without 

 ruffling their delicate wings. This is just one of those sur- 

 prises which an observant mind obtains, when in a mere dot 

 of life such elaborate finish and perfection is discovered. A 

 little creeping ashen-grey moth spreads a pair of u})per wings 

 clothed with feathery scales, that require the utmost power of 

 liiniiau skill in micr(>sc()})ic lenses to investigate. On the 

 membrane of this wing, ^\■hi(•h has a definite tracery of veins 



