CATERPILLARS. 149 



scarce in any part of the country ; and by examining the 

 leaves of nettles which appear folded edge to edge, in July 

 and August, the caterpillar may be readily found. 



Another butterfly {Hesperia malvoe) is met with on drj^ 

 banks where mallows grow, in May, or even earlier, and 

 also in August, but is not indigenous. The caterpillar, 

 which is grey, with a black head, and four sulphur-coloured 

 spots on the neck, folds around it the leaves of the mallow, 

 upon which it feeds. There is nothing, however, pecu- 

 liarly different in its proceedings from those above de- 

 scribed ; but the care with which it selects and rolls up 

 one of the smaller leaves, when it is about to be trans- 

 formed into a chrysalis, is worthy of remark ; it joins it, 

 indeed, so completely round and round, that it has some- 

 what the resemblance of an egg. Within this green cell it 

 lies secure, till the time arrives when it is ready to burst 

 its cerements, and trust to the quickness of its wings for 

 protection against its enemies. 



Among the nests of caterpillars which roll up parcels 

 of leaves, we know none so well contrived as those which 

 are found upon willows and a species of osier. The long 

 and narrow leaves of these plants are naturally adapted to 

 be adjusted parallel to each other ; for this is the direction 

 which they have at the end of each stalk, when they are 

 not entirely developed. One kind of small smooth cater- 

 pillar {lortrix chhrand), with sixteen feet, the under part 

 of which is brown, and streaked with white, fastens these 

 leaves together, and makes them up into parcels. There is 

 nothing particularly striking in the mechanical manner in 

 which it constructs them. It does precisely what we 

 should do in a similar case : it winds a thread round those 

 leaves which must be kept together, from a little above 

 their termination to a very short distance from their 

 extreme point ; and as it finds the leaves almost constantly 

 lying near each other, it has little difficulty in bringing 

 them together, as is shown in the following cut, a. 



The prettiest of these parcels are those which are made 

 upon a kind of osier, the borders of whose leaves sometimes 

 form columnar bundles before they become developed. A 



