LEPIDOPTERA. 



273 



They are so many bands, so many little cords which hold out against 

 the spring of the leaf. There are sometimes more than from ten to 

 twelve of these bands arranged nearly in the self-same straight line. 

 Each band is a packet of threads of white silk, pressed one against 

 the other, and yet we must remember all are separate." '^ 



Reaumur made the oak-leaf rollers work in his house. He has 

 admirably described all their little manoeuvres, but we lack the space 

 to convey to the reader the result of his minute. observations. In fact, 

 the leaf-rollers construct for themselves a sort of cylindrical cell, which 

 receives light only through the two extremities. The convenience of 

 this green fresh habitation is, that its walls furnish food to the animal 

 which inhabits it. The caterpillar, thus sheltered, sets to work to 



Fig, 284. — Leaf of sorrel , a portion of which is cut and rolled perpendicularly to the leaf. 



gnaw away at the end of the leaf which it rolled first ; it then eats all 

 the rolls it has made, up to the very last. 



Reaumur found also rolls which had been formed of two or three 

 leaves rolled lengthwise, and he saw that the leaves which had 

 occupied the centre had been almost entirely eaten. He saw also 

 caterpillars which continued to eat while they were making their 

 habitation. Let us' add that one of the ends of the roll is the opening 

 through which the caterpillar casts its excrement ; that the caterpillar 

 can prepare itself a fresh roll if it is turned out of the first ; and, 

 lastly, that it is in a rolled leaf that the caterpillar undergoes its 

 metamorphoses into a chrysalis and into a moth. 



Reaumur studied other leaf-rollers ; for instance, those which roll 

 the leaves of nettles and of sorrel. The last one works in a manner 

 which deserves to be mentioned. Its roll is of no particular shape, 

 but it is its position which is remarkable. It is set upon the leaf like 



* Memoires pour servir a I'Histoire des Insectes, tome ii., 

 Memoire). 



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