36 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



cell-wall, or floating about; sweetmeats and candies for the 

 little gourmand no wonder it eats so much ; in twelve hours 

 it ate the weight of its own body ; as if a man should in the 

 same time demolish thirty four-pound loaves of bread." 



This formation of a tent at the edge of a leaf is not a mere 

 routine of instinct, for Reaumur tested the resources of one of 

 the same Limosipennella (Fig. 8) by turning one out to make 

 a new case, and when the excavation was completed, cutting 

 off the teeth of the leaf. The two membranes flew apart, 

 and the little larva seemed to be surprised and troubled ; after 

 a little hesitation apparently it saw the remedy, turned itself 

 about, and threw a few threads from side to side, pulled them 

 close and joined the rent. Then, as if considering that a like 

 misfortune might happen again, before proceeding in the 

 work of mining necessary for a full-sized case, it darkened 

 the interior of the mine with a regular silken tube, which it 

 left to continue and mine in a curve directly down the leaf 

 and across the fibres. Now and then it returned to the tube, 

 and lengthened and strengthened that ; yet with strange fore- 

 thought the case was not woven throughout ; one side was 

 merely tacked together and spaces left by which the larva 

 could put out its head and cut the leaf between the fibres 

 which now supported the case, yet somehow perceiving 

 that from the cutting away of the edge the natural curve 

 was destroyed, the larva actually changed the aperture from 

 one end to the opposite, in order to obtain the proper and con- 

 venient shape. At last, after two days' hard work, the tent 

 was finished, and the thoughtful, patient little architect went 

 on its way towards the development and perfection of its being. 



The Coleophora Vitella, whose tent is given in Fig. 2, may 

 be found as early as April, having begun its case from the" 

 leaf of Vaccinium vitis idcca (cranberry) in the autumn, and 

 up to the end of the month the case is being continually 

 enlarged with pieces of the mined leaf, giving it a wrinkled 

 appearance, and making it paler near the mouth as fresh 

 bits are added, and the case becomes pistol-shaped. The 

 moth comes out at the end of June, and is abundant near 

 Manchester. 



