PLANTS THAT EAT INSECTS 17 



fashion, on the stem, and its dainty lace-veined 

 pitchers with their shield-like wings, make the plant 

 one of the most attractive of the insect-eaters. 



But while these blood-thirsty plants cunningly 

 deceive and destroy many insects in order to feast 

 upon them, there are at least two species of insect 

 that seek their homes and food from the plants. 

 One of these is a small moth, marked with greyish- 

 black and yellow across its wings and back. These 

 tiny moths move around in the pitchers as though 

 in a miniature palace! And it is a palace to them; 

 for, from the time the parent moth first lays her 

 eggs at the mouth of the pitcher, until the young 

 moth eats her way through the bottom of the leaf, 

 it is a veritable paradise of luxuries. The small 

 egg hatches into a larva which weaves for itself 

 a thin silken shawl. The larva feeds on the plant 

 until the walls cave in, when the gaudy moth sails 

 forth into the world. 



The other species of insect which finds a genial 

 haven in these pitcher-plants is a fly, which in its 

 larval state feeds on the decaying bodies of the 

 putrid insects at the bottom of the pitcher, and 

 finally bores through the leaf and drops to the 

 ground, from which it later arises a full-fledged 



fly- 



These two species of insect evidently do not suit 



