In a book of this kind we can only mention some types among these last insects, which claim our attention in what we might almost call a tyrannical manner. We will, therefore, content our-

Fig. 271. — Poedisca autumnana. Fig. 272. — Tortrix roborana.

selves by saying a few words about the Green Tortrix, the Pyralis of the Vine, the Bee-hive Moth, some species of the Clothes Moth family {Tineina)^ and finally of the CEcophorce.

Fig. 273. — Philobacera fagana. Fig. 274. — Tortrix sorbiana.

The Green Tortrix ( 77;r/;xr 7'irida?i a) has wings of a green colour, with the margin and fringe whitish on the anterior, and of an ashy grey on the posterior wings. The under-side of the four wings is ot

a bright white, as if it had been silvered. This pretty moth comes out in the month of May. It is so common everywhere, that at this season it is only necessary to shake the branches of the oaks which

Fig. 275. — Antithesia salicana. Fig. 276. — Poedisca occultana. Fig. 277.—aeneana.Argyrolepia

border the alleys of the woods to set in motion hundreds of them. The caterpillar is green, with black warty spots, each having a hair of the same colour. They are wonderfully lively, the moment they are

Fig. 278. — Sericoris Zinkenana. Fig. 279. - Sarrothripa revayana. ► disturbed taking refuge in a rolled leaf, which serves them as a dwelling-place. If they are pursued, they let themselves fall by the aid of a thread, and do not re-ascend till they think they can count

Fig. 280. — Cochyli.s francilana. Fig. 281. — Choreutes dolosana.

on repose and security. This, and many kindred species, do a great deal of damage to our trees. They strip them of their leaves, and sometimes give them, during the first days of summer, the sad and melancholy appearance which they present in the middle of winter.

We have just alluded to the tube formed of a rolled leaf, in which the caterpillar takes refuge, and in which it lives. This tube it constructs itself. Re'aumur has devoted a magnificent chapter of his

Memoirs to observations on the skill with which divers species of caterpillars fold, roll, and bind the leaves of plants and trees, especially those of the oak. Let us listen to the great observer:— " If one looks attentively at the leaves of the oak tree towards the middle of the spring, many of them will be seen to be rolled in different ways. The exterior surface of the end of one of these leaves has, it appears, been rolled back towards the interior surface, in order to describe the first turn of a spiral, which is then covered by many other turns (Fig. 282). Some leaves are rolled towards their exterior surfaces, others are rolled towards their interior surfaces, but in a

Fig. 282. — Oak leaf rolled perpendicularly. Fig. 283. — Oak leaf rolled sideways.

totally different 'direction. The length or axis of the first roll isperpendicular to the principal rib and to the stalk of the leaf, the axis of the latter parallel to the same rib (Fig. 283). Work of this kind would not be very difficult to perform for those who had fingers; but caterpillars have neither fingers nor anything equivalent to fingers. Moreover, to have rolled the leaves is only to have done half the work: they must be retained in a position from which their natural spring tends constantly to draw them. The mechanism to which the caterpillars have recourse for this second part of their work is easily perceived. We see packets of threads attached by one end to the surface of the roll, and by the other to the flat surface of the leaf

LEPIDOPTERA.

They are so many bands, so many little cords which hold out against the spring of the leaf. There are sometimes more than from ten to twelve of these bands arranged nearly in the self-same straight line. Each band is a packet of threads of white silk, pressed one against

the other, and yet we must remember all are separate." '^

Reaumur made the oak-leaf rollers work in his house. He has admirably described all their little manoeuvres, 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 cylindrical 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

Fig, 284. — Leaf of sorrel, a portion of which is cut and rolled perpendicularly to the leaf.

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.

Reaumur 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 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 caterpillar 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.

Reaumur studied other leaf-rollers; for instance, those which roll the leaves of nettles and of sorrel. The last one works in a manner which deserves to be mentioned. Its roll is of no particular shape, but it is its position which is remarkable. It is set upon the leaf like

Memoire).* Memoires pour servir a I'Histoire des Insectes, tome ii., page 210 (5e

Fig, 284. — Leaf of sorrel , a portion of which is cut and rolled perpendicularly to the leaf.

a ninepin (Fig. 284). The caterpillar has not only to twist it up into a roll, but also to place it perpendicularly on the leaf.

Next to the rolling caterpillars, let us mention those which are contented with folding the leaves. These caterpillars then lie in a

Figs. 285 and 2S Willow leaves rolled by a caterpillar, and section of a bundle of leaves drawn together by a caterpillar

sort of flat box. Besides the rolling and folding caterpillars, there are still those which bind up a good many leaves in one packet. These pacicets are to be found on nearly every tree and shrub, and the cater-: pillar, lying nearly in the middle of the packet, is w^ell sheltered, a'ld surrounded by a good supply of food. We will content ourselves by

giving a drawing, after Reaumur, of the pretty arrangement of the leaves of a species of willow (Figs. 285, 286). In the figures we see the parcel bound together by the caterpillar. In that to the right we see the transverse section of the packet of leaves magnified. At the two edges are seen the threads which keep the leaves together, and the cavity occupied by the caterpillar.

The Vine Pyralis is produced from a leaf-rolling caterpillar, which deserves our attention on account of the ravages which it has for some time committed, and which it still commits in vineyards. It was at the end of the sixteenth century that this pyralis first showed itself in the environs of Paris, in the territory of Argenteuil. " The inhabitants of this commune," writes the Abbe I.eboeuf, " looked on the insects which spoiled their vines in the spring of 1562 as a visitation of God. The Bishop of Paris gave orders that they should offer up public prayers for the diminution of these insects, and that they should join to their prayers, exorcisms, without leaving the church." Prayers, processions, exorcisms, were again had recourse to in 1629, in 17 17, and in 1733, to stop the ravages of this insect among the vines of Colombes, in the territory of Ai.

The country of the Maconnais and the Beaujolais became in their turn the theatre of the ravages of the pyralis. These ravages very soon increased and spread. In 1836, 1837, 1838, this plague raged in the departments of the Saone-et-Loire, of the Rhone, of the Cote-d'Or, of the Marne, of the Seine-et-Oise, of the Charente- Inferieure, of the Haute-Garonne, of the Pyrenees-Orientales, and of the Herault. To give an idea of the losses which may be occasioned by the pyrahs, in a period of ten years (1828-1837), twenty-three communes comprised in the two departments of the Saone-et-Loire and- of the Rhone lost 75,000 hectolitres of wine a year, which may be valued at 1,500,000 francs. If we were to calculate the supply of articles of all sorts which this great number of casks of wine would have necessitated, the imposts on their transport, the duty, the taxes ilevied on their sale, the carriage by land and water, which would have brought receipts into the treasury, and lastly the diminution of taxes which had to be granted for seven years to the vine proprietors in the department of the Saone-et-Loire, and in 1837 in the department of the Rhone, and which amounted to a total of more than 100,000 francs, we shall find that the ravages of the pyralis caused in these two departments an annual loss of 3,408,000 francs, and as the visitation lasted ten years, we get the enormous total Df 34,000,000 francs lost by the ravages of one species of insect.

The moth of the pyralis(Fig. 287) shows itself from the loth to the 20th of June. It is yellowish, more or less shot with gold. When at rest, its wings are folded back one over the other like a roof Its

Fig. 287.— The Vine Pyralis. Fig. 288. -Caterpillar of the VTne

Pyralis.

flight is of short duration; it contents itself with going from one viui stock to another. It is at sunset mostly that you see the moths of the pyralis fluttering about. They remain quiet during the day, particularly when the sun is at its hottest. They live on an average for ten days. The females lay their eggs — which are at first green, then yellowish, then brown — on the lower surface of the leaves. The caterpillar of the pyralis (Fig. 288) is called, in vulgar parlance,

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