42 PARTIAL OR1SMOLOGY. 



58. 



Different from these peculiar appendages, which we may 

 consistently consider as particular organs, is the spinose and hairy 

 clothing of the majority of caterpillars. We may, indeed, admit 

 that the majority of larva? are quite naked ; but this assertion 

 does not admit of extension to the order of the Lepidoptera, for very 

 many caterpillars move about enveloped in fur. The SPJNOSE cater- 

 pillars (larvae acnleatce), are almost peculiar to the butterflies (Papi- 

 lionacea}, but the larvae also of the tortoise beetles (Cassida), are 

 armed nearly all over with longer or shorter spines, but particularly 

 so upon the abdomen. In some we observe, upon each segment, four, 

 five, six, seven, or eight simple, and indeed, not unfrequently, branched 

 spines (Vanessa polych/oros), which gives the creature a wild and 

 forbidding appearance, and which may contribute much to the fear 

 with which the common man in general views these innocent and 

 harmless caterpillars. Much more terror is frequently evinced at the 

 indeed larger, but quite naked caterpillars, of the hawk moths, which 

 are furnished, upon their last segment, with a straight or bent horn 

 (Sphingodea, larvae cornutcK), of which it is fabled that it supplies 

 the place of a poisonous and severely wounding sting. A few have, 

 instead of this, a furcate process (Harpya, Ochs, Centra'), the branches 

 of which are pierced, so that the caterpillar possesses the faculty 

 of protruding slender threads through these tubes, for the purpose, as 

 is supposed, of scaring inimical ichneumons (Larvae furciferai). But, 

 with respect to their powers of injury, greater attention is claimed by 

 the HIRSUTE CATERPILLARS (Larvce ursin(e), which are completely 

 clothed with long hairs and bristles, and which, from their stiffness 

 and sharp points, will often cause an unpleasant inflammation upon a 

 delicate skin ; for, when rudely seized, the handling will cause it to 

 lose its dense hair, which, by piercing the skin, causes an itching 

 sensation, that induces the wounded person to rub the spot, and 

 thereby produces a swelling. 



To go into greater detail upon the forms of larvae, appears 

 unnecessary, as, in the natural history of each Order, a characteristic 

 arrangement of their larvae will be at the same time given, and to 

 which we therefore refer. 



