]C4 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



with a single leaf, but weaves together as many as 

 there are in the bud where it may chance to have been 

 hatched, binding their discs so firmly with silk, that 

 all the force of the ascending sap, and the increasing 

 growth of the leaves cannot break through ; a farther 

 expansion is of course prevented. The little inha- 

 bitant in the meanwhile banquets securely on the 

 partitions of its tent, eating door-ways from one 

 apartment into another, through which it can escape 

 in case of danger or disturbance. 



The leafits of the rose, it may be remarked, expand 

 in nearly the same manner as a fan, and the operations 

 of this ingenious little insect retain them in the form 

 of a fan nearly shut. Sometimes, however, it is not 

 contented with one bundle of leafits, but by means of 

 its silken cords unites all which spring from the same 

 bud into a rain-proof canopy, under the protection of 

 which it can feast on the flower-bud, and prevent it 

 from ever blowing. 



In the instance of the currant leaves, the proceed 

 ings of the grub are the same, but it cannot unite the 

 plaits so smoothly as in the case of the rose leafits, 

 and it requires more labour also, as the nervures 

 being stiff, demand a greater effort to bend them. 

 When all the exertions of the insect prove unavailing 

 in its endeavours to draw the edges of a leaf together, 

 it bends them inwards as far as it can, and weaves 

 a close web of silk over the open space between. 

 This is well exemplified in one of the commonest 

 of our leaf-rolling caterpillars, which may be found 

 as early as February on the leaves of the nettle and 

 the white archangel (Lamium album). It is of a 

 light dirty-green colour, spotted with black, and 

 covered with a few hairs. In its young state it 

 confines itself to the bosom of a small leaf, near the 

 insertion of the leaf-stalk, partly bending the edges 

 inwards, and covering in the interval with a silken 



