144 IXSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



dark-brown one, with a black bead and six feet, very 

 common in gardens, on the cnrrant-bnsb, or the leaves 

 of the rose-tree (Lozotcenia Eosana, Stephens). It i's ex- 

 ceedingly destructive to the flower-buds. The eggs are 

 deposited in the summer, and probably also in the autumn 

 or in spring, in little OA^al or circular patches of a green 

 colour. The grub makes its appearance with the first 

 opening of the leaves, of whose striicture in the half- 

 expanded state it takes advantage to construct its summer 

 tent. It is not, Hke some of the other leaf-rollers, con- 

 tented 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 inhabitant in the mean- 

 while banquets securely on the partitions of its tent, 

 eating door-ways, from one apartment into another, 

 through wbich it can escape in case of danger or disturb- 

 ance. 



The leaflets of the rose, it may be remarked, expand in 

 nearly the same manner as a fan, and the operations of 

 this ingenious little insect retain them in the form of a 

 fan nearly shut. Sometimes, however, it is not contented 

 with one bimdle of leaflets, but by means ofi ts 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 proceedings 

 of the grub are the same ; but it cannot imite the plaits 

 so smoothly as in the case of the rose leaflets, and it re- 

 quires more labour, also, as the nervures, 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 in- 

 wards 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 commonest of our leaf-rolling caterpillars, which 

 may be found as early as February on the leaves of the 



