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\\ Some irtpitrcri^terous ITarbae : 



THEIR HABITS AND MEANS OF PROTECTION. 



By G. C. GRIFFITHS, F.Z.S., F.E.S. 



{Read May 1th, 1896.) 



WHILE we are all constrained to admire the butterflies 

 with their sun-loving habits, and their fondness for 

 the flowers and the breezy downs, so that to miss them from 

 our country walk would be to lose one of the most potent 

 charms of the summer-time ; yet, apart from the professed 

 entomologists present, there are probably few who regard 

 with any amount of toleration the larvae, or caterpillars, from 

 which our butterflies and moths proceed. Nasty creeping 

 things they are termed by many, and those of us who have 

 greenhouses well know the amount of damage which can be 

 done by one or two nocturnal feeding larvae, hiding perhaps 

 beneath the surface of the soil during the day, but coming 

 forth in the darkness to feed on the foliage of the plants we 

 have tended with such care. 



Yet these destructive creatures, which we class amongst 

 vermin and destroy, have many interesting habits well 

 worthy of our study, and a consideration of them maj^- teach 

 us much which would be hidden from those who only ob- 

 serve the perfect moth or butterfly. 



73 G 



