



272 THE INSECT WORLD. 
admirably described all their little mancuvres; but we lack the | 
space to convey to the reader the result of his minute observations. | 
In fact, the leaf-rollers construct for themselves a sort of cylin- 
drical cell, which receives light only through the two extremities. 
The convenience of this green fresh habitation is, that its walls 
furnish food to the animal which inhabits it. The caterpillar, thus 
sheltered, sets to work to gnaw away at the end of the leaf which 
it rolled first; it then eats all the rolls it has made, up to the 
very last. 
Réaumur found also rolls which had been formed of two or three | 
leaves rolled lengthwise, and he saw that the leaves which had | 
occupied the centre had been almost entirely eaten. He saw also 





















Fig. 284.— Leaf of sorrel, a portion of which is cut and rolled perpendicularly to the leaf. 
| 
caterpillars which continued to eat while they were making their 
habitation. Let us add that one of the ends of the roll is the opening 
through which the caterpillar casts its excrement; that the cater- | 
pillar can prepare itself a fresh roll, if it is turned out of the first ;_ 
and, lastly, that it is in a rolled leaf that the caterpillar undergoes) 
its metamorphoses into a chrysalis and into a moth. | 
Réaumur studied other leaf-rollers; for instance, those which 
roll the leaves of nettles and of sorrel. This last one works in a 
manner which deserves to be mentioned. _ Its roll is of no particular 
shape, but it 1s its position which is remarkable. It is set upon the) 
leaf like a ninepin (Fig. 284). The caterpillar has not only to 
twist 1t up into a roll, but also to place it perpendicularly on v 
leaf. ; 
Next to the rolling caterpillars, let us mention those which are 
contented with folding the leaves. These caterpillars then lie in a 
sort of flat box. Besides the rolling and folding caterpillars, there: 
are still those which bind up a good many leaves in one packet. 

