THE LILAC MOTH. 
*73 
fused effect to the eye as they flutter about with an uncertain 
and devious flight. A sweep with an ordinary entomological 
net will capture plenty of them, but in a few minutes they all 
disappear, some of them returning to the branches whence they 
had come, and others dropping to the ground. During the 
summer of 1864 they were very plentiful in Daren th Wood, the 
heavy growth of oaks giving them every encouragement. 
The insect which commits such devastation on the lilacs is 
generally the little chocolate-coloured moth called the Lilac 
Moth ( Lazotcznia ribeana ), though there are other allied species 
which infest the same plant. Anyone may see the damaged 
. leaves for himself, and therefore I shall not particularly describe 
them, but pass at once to the mechanical powers which are 
involved in the task of curling the elastic leaf into cylindrical 
form. 
Compare the size of the lilac leaf and of the newly hatched 
caterpillar, the latter being about as large as the capital letter I. 
That so minute a creature should roll up the leaf by main 
strength is of course an impossibility, and the method by which 
i that consummation is attained is so remarkable an instance 
of practical mechanics that I must describe the operation at 
length. 
If the reader will procure one of the rolled leaves, he will see 
that the cylindrical portion is retained in its place by a row 
of silken threads, which are individually weak, but collectively 
strong, holding the elastic leaf as firmly as Gulliver was held by 
the multitudinous cords with which he was fastened to the 
ground. That they should hold the cylinder in shape is to be 
expected, but the manner in which the cylinder is made is not 
so clear. The following is the process : — 
First, the caterpillar attaches a number of threads to the 
point and upper edges of the leaf, and fastens the other ends 
to the middle of the leaf itself. It now proceeds to perform 
an operation which is precisely similar to the nautical method 
of ‘bowsing’ up a rope. In order to ■ bowse ’ a rope taut, two 
men are employed, one of them pulling the nearly tightened 
