294 HOMES WITHOXJT HANDS. 



can best afford them shelter, as every one knows who has a tool- 

 house or a summer-house in the garden, but there are many 

 cases in which no such protection can be found, and the insects 

 are forced to content themselves with the southern side of a tree 

 trunk, or the least windy side of a paling. 



The caterpillar of the Spurge Moth is rather prettily marked, 

 being striped longitudinally with white, red, and brown, relieved 

 with black, and furnished with some scanty tufts of hair on each 

 segment. 



One species of insect suspends the cocoon by a thread at each 

 end, so that the resemblance to a hammock is exact. This is 

 the Argyromiges autumnella, one of the minute moths called 

 micro-lepidoptera. The larva of this species is naked. It is a 

 native of England. 



We now pass to the enormous variety of caterpillars which 

 are popularly called Leaf-rollers, because they make their homes 

 in leaves which they curl up in various methods. 



Some use a single leaf, and others employ two or more in 

 the construction of their nests. Even the single-leaf insects 

 display a wonderful variety in their modes of performing an 

 apparently simple task. Some bend the leaf longitudinally, and 

 merely fasten the two edges together, while others bend it trans- 

 versely, fixing the point to the middle nervure. Some roU it 

 longitudinally, so as to make a hollow cylinder corresponding 

 with the entire length of the leaf, while others roll it transversely 

 so that the cylinder is only as long as the leaf is wide, and a 

 few species cut a slit in the leaf and roll up only a small portion 

 of it. 



The leaf-roUer caterpillars belong to numerous species, and 

 are plentiful enough, too plentiful indeed to please the gardener, 

 who finds the leaves of his favourite trees curled up and per- 

 manently disfigured by these little marauders. All of them are 

 of small size, and some so minute that the mere fact of their 

 ability to roll up a leaf is something wonderful 



They flourish best during mild and rather rainy seasons, be- 

 cause the leaves are charged with moisture, and are so soft that 

 they can easily be rolled, and moreover, contain a plentiful 

 supply of food. During the present year, 1864, the Leaf-roUera 

 have sufiered greatly, the continual drought having dried up the 



