THE ENTOMOLOGIST'S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 29.] SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 1857. [Price Id. 
Shoot of Stellaria Holostea (Greater Stitchwort), puckered by the larva of Gelechia tricolorella. 
THE OPENING MONTH. 
April — from the Latin aperio, ‘ I open ’ — 
because in this month plants open their 
buds. Yet this simple explanation is 
fraught with deep significance to the en- 
tomologist ; for how if some buds will 
not open ? This is April, the month in 
which buds open ; and here on the sprig 
of the Greater Stitchwort ( Stellaria Ho- 
lostea) shown above, are buds that will 
not open : nay more, they look puckered 
or crumpled (just as we might fancy 
Russia looking in the hands of Mr. Cob- 
den). Now for this tendency not to 
open, this puckering and crumpling, 
there must be some cause. Examine, 
and see if you can find out the cause. 
On a careful scrutiny you would find 
that in each of these buds which refuse 
to do the bidding of the month, there is, 
or has been, a caterpillar. The cater- 
pillar has crept inside the bud, and, as 
you do when you get into bed on a cold 
night, has drawn the curtains close; but 
then the caterpillar being cleverer even 
than you are, has tied them close with 
silk, so that no rude gust of wind should 
be able to blow them open again. Now, 
the caterpillar in this snug retreat eats 
out the contents of the bud; and when it 
has eaten every tit-bit it goes off to ano- 
ther bud, leaving a little heap of its ex- 
crement in the bud. Hence, when we 
open any of these unwilling-to-open buds, 
we are sure to find either a caterpillar, or 
a little heap of the excrement of a 
caterpillar, a species of visiting card, 
D 
