172 INSECTS. 



are nearly twelve in number and are membraneous. 

 The head of the caterpillar is attached to the first 

 ring by the neck. The general shape of their bodies 

 is cylindrical, and a few of them are transparent. 

 Some are quite naked, and smooth or rough, only 

 with granular elevations or tubercles. A consider- 

 able number are clothed with hairs or bristles, and 

 some are armed with spines stiff enough to pierce 

 the skin. Caterpillars are furnished with palpi or 

 fiselers, jaws, six little eyes on each side of the head, 

 and spiracles or oval openings through which they 

 breathe. These spiracles are ranged along each 

 side of the insect, and their colour is often so con- 

 trasted with the rest of the body, as to produce a 

 striking effect : this contrast is frequently rendered 

 more obvious by their position, as in those whose 

 sides are striped the spimcles are sometimes planted 

 in a stripe, just above one or between two stripes. 



The caterpillars which produce butterflies or 

 moths, have either ten, eight, six or two pro-legs, 

 seldom indeed more, and never fewer. Of these, 

 with few exceptions, two are attached to the last 

 segment of the caterpillar's body, and the rest, when 

 present, to one or more of the sixth, seventh, eighth 

 and ninth segments, none are ever found on the 

 fourth, fifth, tenth or eleventh. 



Some sorts of caterpillars unite in some common 

 work for the benefit of the community, and continue 

 together while their united efforts are beneficial to 

 them ; but when they reach a certain period of life, 

 they disperse and become solitary. Of this kind are 

 the caterpillars of a little butterfly which feeds on 

 the narrow-leaved plantain. The families of these, 

 usually amounting to a hundred, unite to form a 

 pyramidal silken tent, containing several apartments, 

 wliich is pitched over some of the plants that con- 

 stitute their food, and shelter them both from the 

 sun and rain. When they have consumed the pro- 

 visions which it covers, they construct a new one 

 over the roots of the plant, and sometimes four or 



