Tent-Making Caterpillars. 243 



destructive of granaries. The mother-moth, in May or 

 June, lays about twenty or more eggs on a grain of barley 

 or wheat ; and when the caterpillars are hatched they disperse, 

 each selecting a single grain. M. Keaumur imagines that 

 sanguinary wars must sometimes arise, in cases of pre- 

 occupancy, a single grain of barley being a rich heritage for 

 one of these tiny insects ; but he confesses he never saw such 

 contests. When the caterpillar has eaten its way into the 

 interior of the grain, it feeds on the farina, taking care not to 

 gnaw the skin nor even to throw out its excrements, so that 

 except the little hole, scarcely discernible, the grain appears 

 quite sound. When it has eaten all the farina, it spins 

 itself a case of silk within the now hollow grain, and changes 

 to a pupa in November. 



TENT-MAKING CATERPILLARS. 



The caterpillars of a family of small moths (Tineidce), 

 which feed on the leaves of various trees, such as the 

 hawthorn, the elm, the oak, and most fruit-trees, particularly 

 the pear, form habitations which are exceedingly ingenious 

 and elegant. They are so very minute that they require 

 close inspection to discover them; and to the cursory 

 observer, unacquainted with their habits, they will appear 

 more like the withered leaf-scales of the tree, thrown off when 

 the buds expand, than artificial structures made by insects. 

 It is only, indeed, by seeing them move about upon the 

 leaves, that we discover they are inhabited by a living tenant, 

 who carries them as the snail does its shell. 



These tents are from a quarter of an inch to an inch in 

 length, and usually about the breadth of an oat-straw. That 

 they are of the colour of a withered leaf is not surprising ; 

 for they are actually composed of a piece of leaf; not, how- 

 ever, cut out from the whole thickness, but artfully separated 

 from the upper layer, as a person might separate one of the 

 leaves of paper from a sheet of pasteboard. 



The tents of this class of caterpillars, which are found on 

 the elm, the alder, and other trees with serrated leaves, are 



