Mining Caterpillars. 255 



The bramble-leaf miner seems also to differ from that 

 of the rose-leaf, by eating the pulp both from the upper and 

 under surface, at least the track is equally distinct above 

 and below ; yet this may arise from the different consistence 

 of the leaf pulp, that in the rose being firm, while that of 

 the bramble is soft and puffy, 



On the leaves of the common primrose (Primula veris) , as 

 well as on the garden variety of it, the polyanthus, one of 

 those mining caterpillars may very frequently be found. It 

 is, however, considerably different from the preceding, for 

 there is no black trace no river to the valley which it 

 excavates : its ejectamenta, being small and solid, are seen, 



Leaf of the Primrose (Primula veris), mined by a Caterpillar. 



when the leaf is dried, in little black points like grains of 

 sand. This miner also seems more partial than the pre- 

 ceding to the mid-rih and its vicinity, in consequence of 

 which its path is seldom so tortuous, and often appears at its 

 extremity to terminate in an area comparatively extensive, 

 arising from its recrossing its previous tracks. (J. R.) 



Swammerdam describes a mining caterpillar which he 

 found on the leaves of the alder, though it did not, 

 like those we have just described, excavate a winding 

 gallery ; it kept upon the same spot, and formed only an 

 irregular area. A moth was produced from this, whose 

 upper wings, he says, " shone and glittered most gloriously 

 with crescents of gold, silver, and brown, surrounded by 

 borders of delicate black." Another area miner which he 

 found on the leaves of willows, as many as seventeen on ono 

 leaf, producing what appeared to be rusty spots, was nieta- 



