We have found this little miner on almost every sort of rose-tree, both
wild and cultivated, including the sweet-briar, in which, the leaf
being very small, it requires nearly the whole parenchyma to feed one
caterpillar. They seem, however, to prefer the foreign monthly rose to
any of our native species, and there are few trees of this where they
may not be discovered.
[Illustration: Leaf of the Dew-berry Bramble (_Rubus cæsius_), mined by
Caterpillars.]
Tunnels very analogous to the preceding may be found upon the common
bramble (_Rubus fruticosus_); and on the holly, early in spring, one
which is in form of an irregular whitish blotch. But in the former
case, the little miner seems to proceed more regularly, always, when
newly hatched, making directly for the circumference, upon or near
which also the mother-moth deposits her egg, and winding along for half
the extent of the leaf close upon the edge, following, in some cases,
the very indentations formed by the terminating nervures.
The bramble-leaf miner seems also to differ from that of the rose-leaf,
by eating the pulp both from the upper and under surface, at least the
track is equally distinct above and below; yet this may arise from the
different consistence of the leaf pulp, that in the rose being firm,
while that of the bramble is soft and puffy.
On the leaves of the common primrose (_Primula veris_), as well as
on the garden variety of it, the polyanthus, one of those mining
caterpillars may very frequently be found. It is, however, considerably
different from the preceding, for there is no black trace--no river to
the valley which it excavates: its ejectamenta, being small and solid,
are seen, when the leaf is dried, in little black points like grains
of sand. This miner also seems more partial than the preceding to the
mid-rib and its vicinity, in consequence of which its path is seldom
so tortuous, and often appears at its extremity to terminate in an
area comparatively extensive, arising from its recrossing its previous
tracks. (J. R.)
[Illustration: Leaf of the Primrose (_Primula veris_), mined by a
Caterpillar.]
Swammerdam describes a mining caterpillar which he found on the leaves
of the alder, though it did not, like those we have just described,
excavate a winding gallery; it kept upon the same spot, and formed
only an irregular area. A moth was produced from this, whose upper
wings, he says, "shone and glittered most gloriously with crescents
of gold, silver, and brown, surrounded by borders of delicate black."
Another area miner which he found on the leaves of willows, as many as
seventeen on one leaf, producing what appeared to be rusty spots, was
metamorphosed into a very minute weevil (_Curculio Rhionoc._). He says
he has been informed that, in warm climates, worms an inch long are
found in leaves, and adds, with great simplicity, "on these many fine
experiments might have been made, if the inhabitants had not laboured
under the cursed thirst of gold."[BZ]
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