•356 JfEW York State Agricultural Society. 
to face, their edges evenly meeting all around ; the outer sides of the 
leaves being also convex, thus making a cavity bet^veen them and 
o'ivino' them the resemblance to the two valves of a clam shell; and 
o o 
their inner surface, which had been the upper side of the leaves, and 
also their parenchyma, had been extensively eaten by worms residing 
in the cavity between the leaves, there being but one worm in some 
of these cavities and in others two or three, and sometimes as many 
as five or six. The leaves at the end of the limbs and twigs are 
nearly or quite alike in their size and form, and the worm, by spinning 
from its mouth a fine silk thread and fastening it first to the edge of 
one leaf and then to the edge of the other, by making each successive 
thread as tight as it is able when fastening its end, manages to 
gradually draw two leaves together, with their upper sides facing 
each other; and when they are brought into contact, the worm, 
standing upon the edge of the two leaves, and carrying its head from 
side to side, fastens the thread it is spinning successively to the 
border of one leaf and the other as it steps backward, traveling 
around and around upon the outer edge of the leaves a multitude 
of times. This work is done, no doubt, by night, when no bird or 
other enemy is abroad to espy it when it is thus conspicuously 
exposed; and it is probably employed at this work for several succes¬ 
sive nights, adding to the threads until a thin, paper-like tissue is 
formed over the united edges, thus wholly excluding any parasite or 
other insect enemy from entering its habitation. The threads of this 
tissue are placed lengthwise of the leaf and diagonally, none of them 
appearing to be transverse. 
The worm lives in security between the leaves, feeding upon their 
pulp, until it is wholly consumed, except a slender border around the 
outer edge of both leaves — the skin of the under side of the leaves and 
the network of veins remaining and continuing to constitute a secure 
wall to the house in which the worm lives. The two leaves do not 
furnish the amount of sustenance it requires to bring it to maturity, 
and when their pulp is consumed a third leai is similarly drawed down 
and tied over one or the other of the two first, and then a fourth, till 
finally six leaves are usually tied together, though only a part of the 
last ones are eaten, portions of them remaining green. The first 
leaves die and become brown as other leaves overlay them, and with 
each additional leaf the nest becomes more convex and globular, till 
finally it forms an uneven ball or a short bag. On tearing these leaves 
apart one or more worms and a quantity of black grains, their feces, 
are found in the cavity inside. . 
