LACKEY MOTH. 143 



and six of them have been tunnelled, while one leaf 

 has been occupied by two insects, each keeping to his 

 own side. 



The course which these creatures pursue is very 

 curious. Sometimes, as in the figure on plate A, fig. 

 1, the caterpillar makes a decided and bold track, 

 keeping mostly to the central portion of the leaf. 



Sometimes it makes a confused tortuous jumble of 

 paths, so- that it is not easy to discover any definite 

 course. 



Sometimes it prefers the edges of the leaves, and 

 skirts them with strange exactness, adapting its 

 course to every notch, and following the outline as if 

 it were tracing a plan. 



This propensity seems to exhibit itself most 

 strongly in the deeply cut leaves. And the shape or 

 direction of the path seems to be as property belong- 

 ing to this species of the insect which makes it ; for 

 there may be tracks of totally distinct forms, and yet 

 the insects producing them are found to belong to 

 the same species. 



If the twigs of an ordinary thorn bush be examined 

 during the winter months, many of them will be seen 

 surrounded with curious little objects, called " fairy 

 bracelets " by the vulgar, and by the learned " ova of 

 Clisiocampa Neustria". These are the eggs of the 

 Lackey Moth, and are fastened round the twigs by 

 the mother insect, a brown-coloured moth, that may 

 be found in any number at the right time. 



