LEAF-BOLLEES. 479 



tender shoots or under the bark of plants. A few bore into 

 young fruits, which they cause to ripen and fall prematurely. 

 A still smaller number of kinds live on the leaves of plants, 

 exposed to view, and without any kind of covering over 

 them. Most of these insects, when disturbed, let themselves 

 down by threads, like the Geometers. Very few of them 

 make cocoons ; the greater number transforming within the 

 rolled leaves, or in the other situations wherein they usually 

 dwell. They are furnished with sixteen legs, and their 

 bodies are nearly or quite naked. Many of their chrysalids 

 have two rows of minute prickles across each of the rings 

 of the hind body, by the help of which they push themselves 

 half-way out of their habitations, when the included moths 

 are about to come forth. 



The moths of this tribe are mostly of small size, very few 

 of them expanding more than one inch. They carry their 

 wings like a steep roof over their bodies when they are 

 at rest. Their fore wings are very much curved, and are 

 very broad at the shoulders, and hence these insects are 

 called Platyomides, that is, broad shoulders, by the French 

 naturalists. These wings are generally very prettily banded 

 and spotted, and are sometimes ornamented with brilliant 

 metallic spots. The hind wings are plain, and of a uniform 

 dusky or grayish color, and the inner edge is folded like 

 a fan against the side of the body. Their antennae are 

 naked or thread-like. Their feelers, two in number, are 

 broad, of moderate length, or project like a short beak in 

 front of the head, and are never curved upwards. The 

 spiral tongue is mostly short, and sometimes invisible. The 

 body is rather short and thick, and the legs are also much 

 shorter in proportion than in the Delta-moths. These little 

 moths fly only in the evening and night, and remain at rest 

 during the day upon or near the plants inhabited by their 

 caterpillars. They are most abundant in midsummer, but 

 certain species appear in the spring or autumn. The habits 

 of the Tortrices, in all their states, are not yet known well 



