386 Mr. J. Hardy on the Primrose-leaf Miner, 
source, but whose terminations are quite a maze. On turning 
up the underside of the leaf, however, none of these appearances 
are perceptible; the tint being of a uniform green. On holding 
it up to the light, we see in the mterior a number of dark 
specks placed at widish intervals, generally following the several 
windings, and like so many guide-posts stationed to indicate a 
thoroughfare through the intricacies. Here then are characters 
of no ordinary kind, tastefully designed, and evincing lengthened 
operation ; how shall we decipher the legend? and by whom, and 
with what intention was it inscribed? What a strange tale su- 
perstition unfolds respecting these mysteries! June 1825. “In 
some parts of Dorsetshire and Devonshire a species of blight or 
grub * has settled on the blackberry [bramble] leaves, gnawing 
them in a serpentine manner, so that the dead fibre shows 
through the remaining green. This circumstance has produced, 
in consequence of a certain prophecy, a great degree of alarm in 
the minds of the lower classes residing on the borders of Dorset 
and Devon. It has gone forth that a ‘ flying serpent’ will poison 
the air, which, becoming impure, will cause the death of nmeteen 
out of twenty; and that the time will be known by this parti- 
cular appearance on the leaves, which the pseudo-prophet calls 
the reflection of the serpent. The serpent whose pestilential 
influence is to be felt, is Satan, whose period of bondage is ex- 
pired. The deaths will take place principally among persons 
under thirty years of age. Hundreds of individuals have paid 
for charms to secure themselves from danger and infection.” 
(Annual Register for 1825, Chronicle, p. 89.) But from the 
ravings of folly, let us now turn to the explications of fact. In 
Rennie’s interesting little work on ‘ Insect Architecture,’ vol. 1. 
p- 223, 2nd ed., there is a short account of this phenomenon, 
with a representation of one of its variable configurations. It is 
there ascribed to the work of a mining caterpillar, which exca- 
vates the pulp from beneath those parts of the upper membrane 
of the leaf, which are left colourless. The small granular bodies 
already referred to are its ejectamenta, and they follow, although 
the author rather denies this, the track the miner has taken du- 
ring its labours. ‘This is so far correct ; but from the connexion 
of the statement,—the mining caterpillars of small Lepidoptera 
being treated of, and the use of the word “ Caterpillar,”—one 
would infer, that the author imagined that it belonged to some 
minute moth; and such, till I recently had an opportunity of 
investigating the subject, I always understood was the meaning 
imphed. But this is a mistake, for the little miner is the maggot 
or larva of a small, black, two-winged fly belonging to the genus 
* This is occasioned by the caterpillar of a minute moth. 
