THE CATERPILLAR. 



497 



whose time of transformation is also near at 

 hand, fasten their tails to a tree, or to the first 

 worm-hole they meet in a beam, and wait in 

 that defenceless situation. Such caterpillars, 

 on the other hand, as are seen to lie several 

 months in their aurelia state, act with much 

 greater circumspection. Most of them mix 

 their web with sand, and thus make them- 

 selves a strong covering : others build in wood, 

 which serves them in the nature of a coffin. 

 Such as have made the leaves of willows 

 their favourite food, break the tender twigs 

 of them first into small pieces, then pound 

 them as it were to powder ; and, by means 

 of their glutinous silk, make a kind of paste, 

 in which they wrap themselves up. Many 

 are the forms which these animals assume in 

 this helpless state ; and it often happens, that 

 the most deformed butterflies issue from the 

 most beautiful aurelias. 



In general, however, the aurelia takes the 

 rude outline of the parts of the animal which 

 is contained within it; but as to the various 



ther in their whole extent, with the exception of a small 

 opening at one end, by which an exit may be made in 

 case of need. 



I 





Nest of a Lilac-leaf Roller. 



Another species of caterpillar closely allied to this, 

 rolls up the lilac-leaves in a different form, beginning at 

 the end of a leaf, and fixing and pulling its threads till it 

 gets it nearly into the shape of a scroll of parchment. To 

 retain this form more securely, it is not contented, like 

 the former insect, with threads fixed on the inside of the 

 leaf; but has also recourse to a few cables which it weaves 

 on the outside. 



Another species of moth allied to the two preceding, is 

 of a pretty green colour, and lays its eggs upon the 

 leaves of the oak. This caterpillar folds them up in a 

 similar manner, but with this difference, that it works 

 on the under surface of the leaf, pulling the edge down- 

 wards and backwards, instead of forwards and upwards. 

 This species is very abundant, and may readily be found 



soon as the leaves expand. In June, when the per- 

 insect has appeared, by beating a branch of an oak, 

 whole shower of these pretty green moths may be shook 

 into the air. 



Among the leaf-rolling caterpillars, there is a small 

 dark-brown one, with a black head and six feet, very 

 common in gardens on the currant-bush or the leaves of 

 the rose-tree. (Lozotcenia Rosana, Stephens.) It is 

 exceedingly destructive to the flower-buds. The eggs 

 are deposited in the summer, and probably also in the 



VOL. II. 



colours which it is seen to assume, they are 

 rather the effect of accident : for the same spe- 

 cies of insect does not at all times assume the 

 same hue, when it becomes an aurelia. In 

 some the beautiful gold colour is at one time 

 found ; in others, it is wanting. This bril- 

 liant hue, which does not fall short of the best 

 gilding, is formed in the same manner in 

 which we see leather obtain a gold colour, 

 though none of that metal ever enters into the 

 tincture. It is only formed by a beautiful 

 brown varnish, laid upon a white ground ; 

 and the white thus gleaming through the trans- 

 parency of the brown, gives a charming golden 

 yellow. These two colours are found, one 

 over the other, in the aurelia of the little ani- 

 mal we are describing ; and the whole appears 

 gilded without any real gilding. 



The aurelia thus formed, and left to time 

 to expand into a butterfly, in some measure 

 resembles an animal in an egg, that is to wait 

 lor external warmth to hatch it into life and 

 vigour. As the quantity of moisture, that is 



autumn or in spring, in little oval or circular patches of 

 a green colour. The grub makes its appearance with the 

 first opening of the leaves, of whose structure in the half- 

 expanded state it takes advantage to construct its sum- 

 mer tent. It is not, like some of the other leaf-rollers, 

 contented with a single leaf, but weaves together as 

 many as there are in the bud where it may chance to 

 have been hatched, binding their discs so firmly with 

 silk, that all the force of the ascending sap, and the in- 

 creasing growth of the leaves, cannot break through ; a 

 farther expansion is of course prevented. The little in- 

 habitant in the mean while banquets securely on the par. 

 titions of its tent, eating door-ways from one apartment 

 into another, through which it can escape in case of dan- 

 ger or disturbance. 



The leaflets of the rose, it may be remarked, expand in 

 nearly the same manner as a fan, and the operations of 

 this ingenious little insect retain them in the form of a 

 fan nearly shut. Sometimes, however, it is not con- 

 tented with one bundle of leaflets, but by means of its 

 silken cords unites all which spring from the same bud 

 into a rain proof canopy, under the protection of which 

 it can feast on the flower-bud, and prevent it from ever 

 blowing. 



In the instance of the currant leaves, the proceedings 

 of the grub are the same, but it cannot unite the plaits 

 so smoothly as in the case of the rose leaflets, and it re- 

 quires more labour also, as the nervures being stiff, de- 

 mand a greater effort to bend them. When all the ex- 

 ertions of the insect prove unavailing in its endeavours to 

 draw the edges of a leaf together, it bends them inwards 

 as far as it can, and weaves a close web of silk over the 

 open space between. This is well exemplified in one of 

 the commonest of our leaf-rolling caterpillars, which may 

 be found as early as February on the leaves of the nettle 

 and the white archangel (Lamium album.} It is of a 

 light dirty-green colour, spotted with black, and covered 

 with a few hairs. In its young state it confines itself to 

 the bosom of a small leaf, near the insertion of the leaf- 

 stalk, partly bending the edges inwards, and covering in 

 the interval with a silken curtain. As this sort of co- 

 vering is not sufficient for concealment when the animal 

 advances in growth, it abandons the base of the leaf for 

 the middle, where it doubles up one side in a very se- 

 cure and ingenious manner.. Rennie's Insect Architec- 

 ture. 



3 B 



