526 INSECTS AT HOME. 



leading characteristics of the group. The upper wings are 

 rich brown with a golden gloss and a tendency to purple 

 beyond the middle. Across the middle runs a broad diagonal 

 band of shining gold, which, under the microscope, is abso- 

 lutely painful to the eyes from its splendour. 



Indeed, were this minute insect only as large as our common 

 peacock butterfly, it would be acknowledged to be the most 

 magnificent insect in the world, and even the most gorgeous 

 inhabitants of the tropics would pale before its splendour. 

 Fortunately, the entomologist is independent of such con- 

 siderations as mere size, for the microscope enables him to 

 enlarge the smallest insect to any dimensions that he wishes, 

 so that he can give to the smallest of insects all the pictorial 

 effects which they would have if they were many thousand 

 times their real size. 



The larva of the Grolden Pigmy is shown at Fig. b. This 

 caterpillar burrows in the leaf of the common bramble, and in 

 many cases is the cause of the devious tracks which are seen 

 in its leaves. The particular path taken by these larvse seems 

 to be very much a matter of choice. When very young, they 

 seem to be deterred by the presence of a nervure, and to 

 change the direction of their track when they come across it, 

 whereas, when they become older and stronger, they mine 

 their way through the nervures with perfect indifference. 

 Sometimes a Pigmy caterpillar happens to make its way, 

 when very young, to the extreme edge of the leaf. When it 

 does so, it seems never to be able to extricate itself from 

 the margin, but follows with the utmost fidelity the notched 

 edges of the leaf, sometimes nearly travelling round the leaf 

 before it ceases to feed. When it is full-fed, it makes a very 

 little cocoon at the end of its devious tunnel, and in a short 

 time emerges in the perfect state. 



There is scarcely a plant the leaf of which is not mined by 

 some species of this lovely genus, so that to obtain a tolerably 

 good series of the Nepticulse, or Pigmies, as they are popularly 

 termed, is not a difficult matter. This, indeed, is almost the 

 only mode of obtaining these Lilliputian Moths — the humming- 

 birds of the Lepidoptera — in any number, for, in spite of their 

 extremely brilliant colours, it is very difficult to detect them 

 when at liberty. . They have a habit of settling on the rough 



