CATERPILLARS. 



14' 



have witnessed the process in some hundreds of instances ; 

 and we doubt the statement, from the careful survey which 

 the insect makes of the capabilities of the leaf before the 

 operation is begun. If she found upon examination that 

 a leaf would not bend, she would reject it, as we have often 

 seen happen, and pass to another. (J. R.) 



A species of leaf-roller, of the most diminutive size, 

 merits particular mention, although it is not remarkable 

 in colour or figure. It is without hair, of a greenish- white, 

 and has all the vivacity of the other leaf-rollers. Sorrel is 

 the jjlant on which it feeds ; and the manner in which it 

 rolls a portion of the leaf is very ingenious. 



The structure which it contrives is a sort of conical 



Leaf-rolling Caterpillars of the Sorrel. 



pyramid, composed of five or six folds lapped round each 

 other. From the position of this little cone the cater- 

 pillar has other labours to perform, beside that of rolling 

 the leaf. It first cuts across the leaf, its teeth acting as 

 a pair of scissors ; but it does not entirely detach this seg- 

 ment. It rolls it up very gradually, by attaching threads 

 of silk to the plane surface of the leaf, as we have before 

 seen ; and then, having cut in a different direction, sets 

 the cone upright, by weaving other threads, attached to 

 the centre of the roll and the plane of the leaf, upon which 

 it throws the weight of its body. This, it will be readily 



