THE LILAC MOTH. 173 



fused effect to the eye as they flutter about with an uncertain 

 and devious flight. A sweep with an ordinary entomological 

 net will capture plenty of them, but in a few minutes they all 

 disappear, some of them returning to the branches whence they 

 had come, and others dropping to the ground. During the 

 summer of 1864 they were very plentiful in Daren th Wood, the 

 heavy growth of oaks giving them every encouragement. 



The insect which commits such devastation on the lilacs is 

 generally the little chocolate-coloured moth called the Lilac 

 Moth {Lazotcenia ribeana), though there are other allied species 

 which infest the same plant. Anyone may see the damaged 

 leaves for himself, and therefore I shall not particularly describe 

 them, but pass at once to the mechanical powers which are 

 involved in the task of curling the elastic leaf into cylindrical 

 form. 



Compare the size of the lilac leaf and of the newly hatched 

 caterpillar, the latter being about as large as the capital letter I. 

 That so minute a creature should roll up the leaf by main 

 strength is of course an impossibility, and the method by which 

 that consummation is attained is so remarkable an instance 

 of practical mechanics that I must describe the operation at 

 length. 



If the reader will procure one of the rolled leaves, he will see 

 that the cylindrical portion is retained in its place by a row 

 of silken threads, which are individually weak, but collectively 

 strong, holding the elastic leaf as firmly as Gulliver was held by 

 the multitudinous cords with which he was fastened to the 

 ground. That they should hold the cylinder in shape is to be 

 expected, but the manner in which the cylinder is made is not 

 so clear. The following is the process : — 



First, the caterpillar attaches a number of threads to the 

 point and upper edges of the leaf, and fastens the other ends 

 to the middle of the leaf itself. It now proceeds to perform 

 an operation which is precisely similar to the nautical method 

 of * bowsing * up a rope. In order to ' bowse ' a rope taut, two 

 men are employed, one of them pulling the nearly tightened 



