46 THROUGH LEAFY PATHS, 



named Lithocelletes. It is quite nearly related to 

 the destructive caterpillar of the clothes-moth, but 

 luckily for the housekeepers, it has taken to a 

 vegetable, instead of a woollen diet. As soon as 

 it is hatched from the egg, it begins to make a 

 home for itself by separating the upper cuticle of 

 the leaf, beneath which it is protected from the 

 greedy birds, and where it finds an excellent 

 larder. By what special sense does the little 

 moth, winging her way among the foliage, know 

 the difference between the leaves of the oaks and 

 those of the maples and hickories .-' If the stray 

 flutterer should by accident deposit her ova on 

 other kinds of leaves, it would be interesting to 

 know if her progeny would prosper. On the 

 under surface of this oak-leaf are several clusters 

 of black specks so minute that they appear, to 

 the unassisted eye, like blotches of granulated 

 powder. Under the magnifier, these specks are 

 seen to be little bottle-shaped eggs, finely pol- 

 ished like jet, and cemented to the leaf at regular 

 intervals. There is a whitish spot on the top of 

 each, like the scar on seeds, which, at a certain 

 stage of development, is ruptured and forms a 

 passage, through which the larva escapes. 



The insect that deposits these eggs is a most 

 singular hemipterous "bug." Its abdomen, tho- 

 rax and head above are entirely covered with thin 

 gray scales, netted, veined and margined with 



