THE MICKO-LEPIDQPTERA, OK LEAF-MINERS. 



THE MICKO-LEPIDOPTEKA, OK LEAF-MINEKS. 



BUT few observers have devoted any attention to these 

 interesting moths, although of such beautiful hues and metallic 

 lustre, glorious as the Admiral and Peacock butterflies in the 

 variety and richness of their colouring, whilst in their instincts 

 they are as wonderful as any of their larger brethren. 

 Messrs. Stainton, Zeller, and Douglas, who have applied 

 themselves to the study of these minute Lepidoptera, have 

 recorded their researches in magnificent volumes almost un- 

 attainable to ordinary lovers of entomology. In our plate 

 we give representations of our commonest leaf-miners, highly 

 magnified, the natural size being indicated by minute figures 

 or by lines beneath ; and in this chapter we shall describe 

 them and their haunts and habits to assist the young student 

 in his research. 



" It was one of the wonders of my childhood," says 

 Mrs. Lane Clarke, " what the hieroglyphics upon primrose, 

 bramble, and rose leaves could possibly mean. I saw a white 

 winding stream meandering along with a dark wavy line in 

 the centre, "beginning at a mere speck and swelling into a 

 broad river, then suddenly ending. Holding a rose leaf to 

 the light, one day, there was life within that winding way, a 

 sheltered, naked little worm sustained in the narrow channel 

 between the upper and lower cuticle of the leaf; food, safety, 

 warmth, all provided within the limits of the rose-leaf mine. 

 Picking open the upper skin and finding a small green cater- 

 pillar, curious to know its metamorphosis, and failing to 

 preserve the larvae in the gathered leaves, I bethought me of 

 muslin bags, which I tied over the twigs of rose trees and 

 brambles, laburnums and lilacs, which were the first mined 



