42 HABITS OF LARV/E. 



Unlike the perfect insects the larvae exhibit great 

 diversity in habits. Many live solitary, others again 

 are gregarious. Not a few feed exposed in the sun- 

 shine, while others eat only in the cool of the evening, 

 or at night. The great majority feed exposed, but 

 some are internal feeders. Thus, several species of 

 Nematus and one of Hoplocampa inhabit galls raised by 

 the parent; a Cryptocampus and Poecilosoma candi- 

 tatum live boring in the pith of plants ; the Pliyllo- 

 tomides are leaf miners, and Hoplocampa testudina and 

 H. brevis live in fruits. Different species of Lyda 

 roll down leaves, and keep them together with silken 

 threads; Nematus leucostictus, &c., reside in leaves 

 folded down by the imago ; Lyda inanita in a case 

 formed of bits of leaves fastened together, and which 

 it carries along with it. 



Their bodies are mostly cylindrical, but those which 

 feed on the surface of the leaf are flat ; those which 

 mine leaves have them very flat, the head triangular 

 and the legs little developed. Some of them have a 

 habit of rolling up the body in a spiral, the tail being 

 in the centre and often upturned. They rest in this 

 position on the leaves, while others, if they be alarmed, 

 drop to the ground, and rest there motionless, rolled up 

 in a ball, until all danger is gone. 



The head of the larva is roundish, seldom depressed 

 in the middle. Sometimes it can be partly retracted 

 into the over-arching folds of the second segment. 

 There is a single ocellus on either side. Between them 

 and the mandibles are short, often microscopic, 

 antenna, which have three to seven joints, the last 

 being the number with Lyda, which has them compara- 

 tively long ; and, unlike their position with the other 

 genera, they are placed pretty close to the eyes. The 

 labrum is incised in the middle, the mandibles are 

 short, thick, horny, and variously toothed. The 

 maxilla are bilobed, the two lobes being in most cases 

 closely united, and the inner one is provided with blunt 

 teeth varying from ten to twenty and upwards in 



