150 TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 
from the hairy nature of the leaf and the diamond shape of the 
excision the case has a very comical appearance. 
Some of the dry calyxes of the common Marjoram are 
often found fastened together lengthwise when the plant is 
going out of bloom, and a careful examination proves that 
they have been formed into the case of a caterpillar. The 
whitish larva of Gelechia subocella may be seen to poke its pale 
brown head out of the end of this pretty refuge. The larva 
feeds on the seeds of the plant, and when it has eaten the 
contents of one flower it bites off the dry calyx, and using it 
as a case proceeds to another flower, and places the movable 
calyx in the opening of that which is fixed, the seeds of which 
THE LARVA OF Gelechia subocella IN ITS CASE OF ORIGANUM FLOWERS. 
(After Stainton). 
it then demolishes. When the supply is exhausted, the cater- 
pillar bites off the second calyx, and moves off to a third, and 
thus the flowery case gradually increases in length till it consists 
of the husks of four or five flowers. When the caterpillar has 
done with eating and flower-destroying, it attaches this singular 
home either to the dried flower seed or to the stem of the plant, 
or to some neighbouring object, and undergoes metamorphosis.* 
The yellowish green caterpillar of another Gelechia (Gelechia 
marmora) injures the roots of the Cerastium, which grows on the 
sand-hills near the coast, and forms little tubes of sand fastened 
together with silk. The caterpillar having constructed this 
peculiar home, attacks the leaves which are trailing on the 
ground, leaving the case, and returning, before moving off, to 
plunder some more distant plant. The larva is almost subter- 
* Stainton, ‘‘ Natural History of the Tineina,” vol. x., part ii., p. 290. 
