Jessamine, when in flower, is very attractive to moths, and is the favourite haunt of the humming-bird Sphinx, which feeds by sipping the honey without alighting, hovering below and turning its long tongue upwards into the drooping flowers. As this elegant creature feeds by day, a good idea of the habits, on the wing, of the Sphingidae in general may be formed by watching its rapid and elegant motions.

The flowers of rhododendrons are much resorted to in the evening by the large and small elephant hawk-moths (Deilephila Elpenor and D. Porcellus), and also by some of the Noctuina.

As a general rule, flowers that are attractive to bees and butterflies by day are also attended by moths at night, but there are exceptions; mignonette, for instance, which is covered with bees in the sunshine, but no moths come to it during the hours of night. And that queen of flowers, the rose, the favourite of the garden in all ages and climes, of which poets without end have sung the praises, and of which Shelley so exquisitely says,

Makes faint with too much sweet these heavy-winged thieves;"

this beautiful flower, strange to say, is not a favourite with many of the day or night rovers. I do not remember any insect of note which is attached to the flowers, except the rose-chaffer (Cetonia aurata), which is often found buried among the petals; but the leaves are the especial food of

the caterpillars of a small moth (Coleophora gryphipennella), which eats out the parenchyma or fleshy substance between the upper and under skins, leaving white spots on the upper side of the leaves at the places where it has fed. But, not content with this, it makes a covering for its body from the leaves, using as much as it wants of the upper skin only for its wrapper, which it folds round itself in the most fitting style, leaving one end open, through which it protrudes the head and segments bearing the legs: thus attired it walks about, always carrying its clothing with it, which, as the tenant grows, is increased from time to time by additions of more leaf.

Comical things these moving cones appear! always seeming to be in danger of toppling over; but this rarely happens, and if by accident the caterpillar loses its hold it does not fall, but swings down gently by a silken thread kept in readiness for such accidents. When it has done eating the larva turns round, and the change to the pupa state is made within the case, it being first made fast to a leaf, stem or other firm substance; and when the moth emerges, it does so with so much caution and so neatly that there is no sign to the beholder that it has escaped, so that it frequently happens, the collector, finding a case, and thinking he has a prize, gets nothing but disappointment for his pains. There are many other species of this genus of moths, which feed on various plants, and of which I have more to say hereafter.

On the rose-leaves, or rather in them, live the larvæ of Nepticula anomalella, a moth belonging to a genus of the smallest known Lepidoptera, the largest species in it not being more than a quarter of an inch in expanse when the

wings are spread out, and the smallest being less than onesixth of an inch. The larva of our species feeds entirely within the substance of the leaf, making long, tortuous galleries, which turn brown, and are very conspicuous on the green surface of the leaf. The larva state does not last many days, and when the larva is full fed it comes out of its gallery, and makes a tough, brown, silken cocoon in which to undergo its change to a pupa, fixing it in the furrow of the footstalk of the leaf. This situation, however, would not avail for the autumn brood (there are two broods in the year), because the imago state is not with it assumed until after the lapse of winter, and there would be no security in such a place when the leaves had fallen, so the autumn feeders fix their cocoons in crevices of the bark or stem, or in some adjoining place of safety. Unlike the genus Coleophora above mentioned, when a perfect insect of this genus emerges from its cocoon, it leaves the pupa skin projecting half way therefrom; but as the cocoons are seldom found by collectors on account of their smallness, this indication of its exit is not often made serviceable to assure them that their expectations are at an end. This species and another (N. angulifasciella) feed also on the leaves of the wild roses.

Rose-trees are infested by the larvæ of several species of Tortrices, which roll up the leaves with silken thread and eat them at their leisure, often attacking the buds also. There is no efficient remedy but to pick them off as soon as discovered if left, they are sometimes so numerous that they destroy all the blossoms while in the bud.

On the rose also, Aphides, or plant-lice, live and batten on its juices; frequently assembling in such numbers that every

leaf and bud is literally covered with them, and the development of the flowers is totally prevented.

Several other plants besides roses are infested and injured by Aphides; the injuries they do would be much more extensive if the depredators had not natural enemies, such as the lady-bird, both in the larva and pupa state, the larva of the lace-wing fly (Chrysopa perla), and the larvae of the flies called Syrphi. These latter, which may be seen wherever Aphides are, are blind, footless grubs, hatched from eggs deposited by their parents in the midst of their prey. But although without eyes and feet they are not helpless, but soon clear away all the Aphides within reach of their flexible bodies. Very interesting is it to watch them doing so much service with so little exertion.

The generation of Aphides is one of the most wonderful things in insect-life. Dr. W. T. Burnett has recently put forth a theory on this subject,* which has engaged the attention of observers and physiologists for nearly a century, and has had several explanations, none of which have been deemed satisfactory. He says, "the brief history of the general conditions of the development of these insects is as follows:-In the early autumn the colonies of plant-lice are composed of both male and female individuals; these pair, the males then die, and the females soon begin to deposit their eggs, after which they die also. spring, as soon as the sap begins to

Early in the ensuing flow, these eggs are

hatched, and the young lice immediately begin to pump up sap from the tender leaves and shoots, increase rapidly in

*

'Silliman's Journal' for January, 1854, quoted in the 'Zoologist,' 1854, p. 4487.

size, and in a short time come to maturity. In this state it is found that the whole brood, without a single exception, consists solely of females, or rather, and more properly, of individuals which are capable of reproducing their kind. This reproduction takes place by a viviparous generation, there being formed in the individuals in question young lice, which, when capable of entering upon individual life, escape from their progenitors, and form a new and greatly increased colony. This second generation pursues the same course as the first, the individuals of which it is composed being, like those of the first, sexless, or at least without any trace of the male sex throughout. These same conditions are then repeated, and so on almost indefinitely, experiments having shown that the power of reproduction under such circumstances may be exercised, according to Bonnet, at least through nine generations, while Duvau obtained thus eleven generations in seven months, his experiments being curtailed at this stage, not by a failure of the reproductive power, but by the approach of winter, which killed his specimens; and Kyber even observed that a colony of Aphis Dianthi, which had been brought into a constantly heated room, continued to propagate for four years, in this manner, without the intervention of males, and even in this instance it remains to be proved how much longer these phenomena might have been continued."

Dr. Burnett made a series of experiments with Aphides, in order, if possible, to elucidate the anomalous method of their reproduction, all of which he has detailed. He found that the individuals of each generation, except the first, were produced within the body of the parent from a primitive