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houses. Another leaf-miner, but of the order 

 Hymcnoptera, and the Sawfly family, shows remark- 

 able skill as a cutter-out and liner of a winter 

 garment. This insect is the Maple Leaf-cutter 

 (Phyllotoma aceris), and the grub subsists by entering 

 the substance of maple and sycamore leaves and 

 eating out the cellular matter between the upper 

 and the lower cuticles. It is a very soft and delicate 

 creature, and apparently it fears that when the 

 leaves dry up and fall in autumn, it, too, may dry 

 up. So it sets to work to circumvent fate ; and 

 does it. 



The sycamore-leaf has five pointed lobes, and the 

 grub always begins its operations at one of these 

 points, cutting away and eating on either side and 

 in front of him from that point, leaving an area 

 behind him from which the green material has 

 been completely cleared. At length he appears to 

 feel that he has eaten all that is necessary to enable 

 him to work out the remainder of his destiny 

 fasting. 



He now sets to work to cut out his winter clothes. 

 Without the aid of compasses he strikes out a true 

 circle in the upper cuticle of the leaf. With his 

 jaws he makes a series of cuts, each one forming a 

 segment of the circle, but separated from the next 

 cut by a minute interval of unbroken skin. He 

 finishes within the breadth of a pin at the point 

 where he started, and the circle has taken nearly 

 an hour to cut. The circle is now complete, but 

 it remains attached to the rest of the leaf much as 



