331 THE TINEINA. 



I shall be unable to do more than refer to a few of 

 the vast number of species included in this tribe, the 

 study of the natural history of which presents many 

 more points of interest than that of any other group 

 of Lepidoptera. 



Many of the species live, like the Ermine Moths 

 above referred to, in a common web upon the leaves 

 of trees, but a far greater number draw together 

 leaves in the same way as many of the Tortricina, so 

 as to form a sort of habitation, in the interior of 

 which they live and feed. Still more numerous are 

 the species which select a single leaf for the object of 

 their attacks, eating through the cuticle on one side, 

 and then burrowing through the parenchyma of the 

 leaf, devouring it as they go. Of these mining cater- 

 pillars, as they are called, each species is usually 

 confined to one or two plants, and the mines which 

 it forms are for the most part constructed in a peculiar 

 manner, so that, from the plant infested and the form 

 of the mine, the entomologist can generally determine 

 the precise species of moth whose caterpillar has been 

 disfiguring the leaves*. The caterpillar sometimes 

 undergoes its transformations in the interior of its 

 burrow, but more commonly quits this, and either 

 attaches itself to some other part of its food -plant, or 

 to the dead leaves lying on the ground. Many of 

 the caterpillars, however, exhibit a far greater amount 

 of ingenuity in the construction of their habitations, 

 which they form in such a way that they can carry 

 them about with them in search of food. One of 

 these, the larva of Lampronia pralatella, exhibits a 

 wonderful amount of sagacity in his proceedings. He 



* It is to be observed, however, tbat the larvae of numerous 

 small Dipterous Flies also mine the leaves of various plants. . 



