LEAF-ROLLERS. 
479 
tender slioots or under the bark of plants. A few bore into 
young fruits, which they cause to ripen and fall prematurely. 
A still smaller number of kinds Kve on the leaves of plants, 
exposed to view, and without any kind of covering over 
them. Most of these insects, when disturbed, let themselves 
down by threads, like the Geometers. Verv few of them 
make cocoons : the ^rreater number transfomiing within the 
rolled leaves, or in the other situations wherein they usually 
dwell. They are furnished with sixteen legs, and their 
bodies are nearly or quite naked. Many of their chiwsalids 
have two rows of minute prickles across each of the rings 
of the hind body, by the help of which they push themselves 
half-way out of their habitations, when the included moths 
are about to come forth. 
The moths of this tribe are mostly of small size, very few 
of them expanding more than one inch. They carry their 
wings like a steep roof over their bodies when they are 
at rest. Their fore winors are ver\" much curved, and are 
very broad at the shoulders, and hence these insects are 
called Platyomides, that is, broad shoulders, by the French 
naturalists. These wings are generally very prettily banded 
and spotted, and are sometimes ornamented with brilliant 
metallic spots. The hind wings are plain, and of a uniform 
dusky or grayish color, and the inner edge is folded like 
a fan against the side of the bodv. Their antennae are 
naked or thread-like. Their feelers, two in number, are 
broad, of moderate length, or project like a short beak in 
front of the head, and are never curved upwards. The 
spiral tongue is mostly short, and sometimes invisible. The 
body is rather short and thick, and the leers are also much 
shorter in proportion than in the Delta-moths. These little 
moths fly only in the evening and night, and remain at rest 
during the day upon or near the plants inhabited by their 
caterpillars. They are most abundant in midsummer, but 
certain species appear in the spring or autumn. The habits 
of the Tortrices, in all their states, are not vet known well 
