1 92 TRUE TALES OF THE INSECTS. 



motion as it passes from plant to plant, principally in open 

 spots ; though easily startled, it settles at no great height. 

 During April and May, and earlier, it may often be 

 seen in the morning where the yuccas abound, darting 

 hastily about after its customary fashion, on laying 

 thoughts intent ; and as it pauses for a few seconds 

 at one place, it fastens an egg to some portion of a 

 leaf. The eggs are laid singly, though more than one 

 may be put on the same leaf. They are subconical, 

 smooth, and broader than high, pale green at first, 

 changing to buff-yellow or brown. From the egg 

 shortly hatches the larvaa reddish-brown creature with 

 pitchy-black head which shelters itself in a web between 

 some of the young terminal leaves. Usually it starts 

 proceedings near the tip of a leaf, working gradually 

 downwards, eating the while, and rolling and shrivelling 

 the blade as it goes. It lives thus among the leaves till 

 about one-fourth grown, when it enters the trunk, com- 

 mencing the devastation for which it is famed. Along 

 the axis the trunk becomes bored and tunnelled out into 

 a cylindrical burrow, wherein the larva makes its home, 

 extending often two or more feet below the ground, 

 and at its upper end lined with silk, generally inter- 

 mingled with a white, glistening, powdery material, soapy 

 to touch, and analogous with that of Hymenopterous 

 and many Homopterous larvae. At what stage of larval 

 development this powder is secreted is not known, 



