272 THE INSECT WORLD. 
admirably described all their little manceuvres; but we lack the 
space to convey to the reader the result of his minute observations. 
In fact, the leaf-rollers construct for themselves a sort of cylin- 
drical cell, which receives light only through the two extremities. 
The convenience of this green fresh habitation is, that its walls 
furnish food to the animal-which inhabits it. The caterpillar, 
thus sheltered, sets to work to gnaw away at the end of the leaf 
which it rolled first ; it then eats all the rolls it has made, up to 
the very last. 
Réaumur found also rolls which had been formed of two or three 
leaves rolled lengthwise, and he saw that the leaves which had 
occupied the centre had been almost entirely eaten. He saw also 
















Fig. 284.—Leaf of sorrel, a portion of which is cut and rolled perpendicularly to the leaf. 
caterpillars which continued to eat while they were making their 
habitation. Let us add that one of the ends of the roll is the 
opening through which the caterpillar casts its excrement; that 
the caterpillar can prepare itself a fresh roll, if it is turned out of 
the first; and, lastly, that it is in a rolled leaf that the caterpillar 
undergoes its metamorphoses into a chrysalis and into a moth. 
Réaumur studied other leaf-rollers; for instance, those which 
roll the leaves of nettles and of sorrel. ‘This last one works in a 
manner which deserves to be mentioned. Its roll is of no parti- 
cular shape, but it is its position which is remarkable. It is set 
upon the leaf like a ninepin (Fig. 284). The caterpillar has not 
only to twist it up into a roll, but also to place it perpendicularly 
on the leaf. 
Next to the rolling caterpillars, let us mention those which are 
contented with folding the leaves. These caterpillars then lie in a 
sort of flat box. Besides the rolling and folding caterpillars, there 
are still those which bind up a good many leaves in one packet. 
