296 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



stroke being felt even at the end of the suspending thread, and 

 by administering a succession of such taps they will all be 

 induced to come to the groimd. There they will wait a consider- 

 able time, but presently one of them wiU begiu to re-ascend, 

 working its way upwards along the slender and scarcely visible 

 line as easily as if it were crawling upon level groimd. The 

 least alarm wiU cause them to drop again, for they are then very 

 timid, but if allowed to remain in peace, they speedily reach 

 their cells and enter them with a haste that very much resembles 

 the quick jerk with which a soldier-crab enters the shell from 

 which he has been ejected. 



If a toleriably smart breeze be blowing, the sight is still more 

 curious, for the caterpillars are swung about through very large 

 arcs, and, if the wind be steady, are all blown in one direction, 

 so that their line forms quite a large angle with the level of the 

 leaf to which the upper end is attached. The caterpillars, 

 however, seem to be quite indifferent in the matter, and ascend 

 steadily, whether the line be simply perpendicular, or whether 

 it be violently blown about by the wind. 



At the proper season of year, the moths are as plentiful as the 

 larvse, and a shake with the hand will cause a whole cloud of the 

 green creatures to issue forth, producing a strangely confused 

 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 dis- 

 appear, some of them returning to the branches whence they 

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

 summer of 1 864 they were very plentiful in Darenth 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 nbeana), though there are other allied species 

 which infest the same plant. Any one may see the damaged 

 leaves for himself, and therefore I shaU 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. 



