Theelfall : Habits and Breeding of Micuo-Lepidopteea. 55 



the student of the larger species, viz., the invincible desire for conceal- 

 ment manifested by these defenceless creatures. 



I well remember some years ago the length of time occupied in 

 searching for larvae of EidopJiasia messiugiella ; although told by Mr. 

 Hodgkinson the exact place, time, and plant on which he first dis- 

 covered this insect, it was two springs before one day, whilst ruminating 

 discontentedly on my ill luck, and meditating a final retreat, I observed 

 a minute black bit of excrement on a leaf of Cardamines amara. The 

 bud above appeared just opening to the warmth of the spring sun- 

 shine ; closer scrutiny discovered a single band of silk spun from one 

 leaf tip to another, and on pressure a light green active larva backed 

 out and dropped into the water below. The sensations of that moment 

 those who have succeeded after repeated disappointment will best 

 understand ; and they will also appreciate the sentiment that without 

 difficulty there would be no pleasure in success. To attain this object 

 of concealment, and still to carry out the double design of nature — of 

 perpetuating their own existence and of keeping in due bounds the 

 exuberance of vegetation — they have recourse to a variety of expedients. 

 A simple catalogue of their mode of feeding is as follows : — In shoots ; 

 in cases ; on and in seeds ; in decayed wood ; in webs ; and as men- 

 tioned above, in mines in leaves and grasses. 



Shoot feeders. — In spring, stirred by the all-powerful influence of 

 heat, the eggs laid last summer by several families, especially of the 

 GelecJiid(S, produce their inmates, which at once enclose themselves in 

 the young and fast expanding buds sprouting from each tree and bush. 

 Signs of their presence are not wanting in brown -ness of their shoots, 

 or even by the delay in opening caused by the internal web of the 

 larva, and in some cases by an unnatural twist so marked as to form a 

 right angle with the stem. 



In cases. — Others feed in cases of various colours, shapes, and sizes, 

 according as the leaf out of which they are made is large or more or 

 less thick and intensely veined. The architect is always the insect 

 itself, and no time or labour is lost, as the sheaths of the leaf from 

 which the parenchyma has been first stripped and eaten are at once 

 economised. Such are Coleophoroe, whose habits in the perfect state 

 are most retiring, thus forming a marked contrast to their larval state^ 



their presence then may be always detected by the yellow blotches, 

 under which a case is sticking at right angles to the leaf. The Psychidoe 

 are another case-bearing family, but their homes are formed from 

 lichens or grass stems, adorned in the most singular manner by remains 

 of beetles, flies, &c., which form a part of their food. 



