Paths of dreams

The sayings "Since the future is unknown, no path can take you to the known" (Mehmet Murat ildan) and "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail" (Ralph Waldo Emerson) could have been inspired by the very common micro-moth Stigmella aurella. It is a leaf-miner and makes these trails, which are a familiar sight on bramble leaves everywhere. Every trail is different, yet they are so distinctive that you can identify the species without seeing its body. If you follow a trail you can trace the life of the moth larva, from tiny beginnings, when it hatched from a minute egg, along its winding tunnel, as it gets fatter and fatter eating the leaf cells, to the point where it makes a hole and emerges. Along the centre of the tunnel you will see a gradually thickening line of frass - the waste material left behind.