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NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



[15:7— Oct., 1919 



ing it own special 

 food plant. Most 

 of the smaller 

 leaf mines are 

 made by the 

 caterpillars of 

 the moths, which 

 are fitly called 

 the Tineina or 

 Tineids. Most 

 of these barely 

 have a wing ex- 

 panse that will 

 reach a quarter 

 of an inch and 

 many are much 

 smaller; they 



The pine-needle leaf-miner. The mined leaves of pine ^^^ nave narrow 



natural size The caterpillar, pupa and moth of the laef wings, the hind 



miner much enlarged. The lines show actual size of insect. • 1 • -. 



* •' wmgs being mere 



threads bordered with beautiful fringes. 



One of these little moths, Gelechia pinifoliella lives the whole 



of its growing Hfe in half of a pine needle. The moth lays the egg 



at about the middle of the needle, and the little caterpillar that 



hatches from it, gnaws its way directly into the heart of the needle ; 



and there, as snug as snug can be, it lives and feeds until it is almost 



a quarter of an inch long, think of it ! Many a time I have held 



up to the light a pine needle thus inhabited, and have seen the 



little miner race up and down its abode as if it knew that something 



was happening. When it finally attains its growth it makes wider 



the little door, through which it entered; it does this very neatly; 



the door is an even oval, and looks as if it were made with the use 



of dividers After thus opening the door, the caterpillar changes 



to a little, long pupa, very close to its exit; and later it emerges 



as an exquisite little moth with silvery bands on its narrow, brown 



wings, and a luxurious fringe on the edges of its narrow, hind 



wings and also on the outer hind edges of the front wings. 



"And there's never a leaf nor a blade too mean 

 To be some happy creature's palace." 



— Lowell 



