LEAF-ROLLING CATERPILLARS. 13 



mode in which these leaf- rolling caterpillars set to 

 work to form convenient habitations of the leaves 

 of the plants on which they feed, is well described 

 by Kirby and Spence. 



" Some of these merely connect together with 

 a few silken threads several leaves, so as to form 

 an irregular packet, in the centre of which the 

 little hermit lives. Others confine themselves to 

 a single leaf, of which they simply fold one part 

 over the other. A third description form and 

 inhabit a sort of roll, by some species made cylin- 

 drical, by others conical, resembling the papers 

 in which grocers put their sugar, and as accurately 

 constructed ; only there is an opening left at the 

 smaller extremity for the egress of the insect in 

 case of need. If you were to see one of these 

 rolls, you would immediately ask by what mechan- 

 ism it could possibly be made how an insect, 

 without fingers, could contrive to bend a leaf into 

 a roll, and to keep it in that form until fastened 

 with the silk which holds it together? The follow- 

 ing is the operation : the little caterpillar first 

 fixes a series of silken cables from one side of the 



