142 



LEAF-MINERS. 



Of course, the larger the creature becomes, the 

 more food it eats, the more space it occupies, and the 

 wider is its road ; so that, although at its commence- 

 ment the path is no wider than a needle-scratch, it 

 becomes nearly the fifth of an inch wide at its ter- 

 mination. It is easy to trace the insect, and to find 

 it at the widest extremity of its path, either as cater- 

 pillar or chrysalis. Often, though, the creature has 

 escaped, and the empty case is the only relic of its 

 being. 



There are many insects which are leaf-miners in 

 their larval state. Very many of them belong to the 

 minutest known examples of the moth tribes, the 

 very humming bird of the moths, and, like the hum- 

 ming birds, resplendent in colours beyond description. 

 These Micro-Lepidoptera, as they are called, are so 

 numerous, that the study of them and their habits 

 has become quite a distinct branch of insect lore. 



Some, again, are the larvae of certain flies, while 

 others are the larvae of small beetles. Their tastes, 

 too, are very comprehensive, for there are few indi- 

 genous plants whose leaves show no sign of the 

 miner's track, and even in the leaves of many im- 

 ported plants the meandering path may be seen. 



There are some plants, such as the eglantine, the 

 dewberry, and others, that are especially the haunts 

 of these insects, and on whose branches nearly every 

 other leaf is marked with the winding path. I have 

 now before me a little branch containing seven leaves, 



