192 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK 



the split portions and fixes it there with silk. After- 

 wards it mines out the rest of the leaflet and cuts 

 it off at the base, so that the central and basal 

 parts of the leaf form the tube where the larva 

 lives, and the apex on one side and the split-off part 

 on the other furnish the ornaments of the case." 



Another species, C. juncicolella, that feeds on 

 heather, so constructs its case of the leaves that the 

 finished article cannot be distinguished from the 

 plant upon which it is placed. 



Coleophora siccifolia was known to a past genera- 

 tion of entomologists as the Clumsy Tailor, " on 

 account of the apparent waste of materials employed 

 in making its case ; and when feeding in its last 

 case it certainly appears to be carrying far too 

 much sail." But there is method in its madness. 

 " It feeds up in the autumn, and attaches its case 

 to a hawthorn twig to pass the winter and early 

 spring. When in this situation it looks so exactly 

 like a withered leaf that I have wondered whether 

 even the tits and other insectivorous birds are 

 aware that the faded leaf shelters a living cater- 

 pillar. ... It makes altogether three cases, and in 

 making the third, and naturally the largest one, it 

 usually mines out and cuts off the whole of the 

 apical third of a hawthorn leaf. It forms a silken 

 tube in the mine, and inrolls one of the margins 

 to protect the tube in which it lives. The rest of 

 the leaf is spread out like a wing on the other side, 

 till time gives it the curl which so many dead leaves 



assume." 



