Caterpillars. 185 



beating a branch of an oak, a 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 

 (Lozottenia rosana, STEPHENS). It is exceedingly destructive 

 to the flower-buds. The eggs are deposited in the summer, 

 and probably also in the 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 summer 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 increasing growth of 

 the leaves, cannot break through ; a farther expansion is of 

 course prevented. The little inhabitant in the meanwhile 

 banquets securely on the partitions of its tent, eating door- 

 ways from one apartment into another, through which it can 

 escape in case of danger 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 contented 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 requires 

 more labour, also, as the nervures, being stiff, demand a 

 greater effort to bend them. When all the exertions 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, 



