142 



INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



many others should not be similarly coloured, when 

 we consider that their stomachs occupy the greater 

 portion of their bodies, and are generally gorged with 

 food. It wculd be no difficult matter, therefore, to 

 enumerate several hundred examples of caterpillars 

 resembling in colour the substances upon which they 

 feed. It strikes us as more singular to find a great 

 many which, though they feed on green leaves, re- 

 semble in colour the gray or brown bark of the 

 branches where they usually rest when not feeding 



Caterpillars of the Clifden nonpareil feeding on the gray poplar. 



A marked instance of this occurs in the caterpillar of 

 one of our largest and most beautiful moths, the Clif- 

 den nonpareil {Ccttocala Jraxini, Schrank), which 

 feeds on the ash and the poplar, and is so similar to 

 a stripe of brown lichen dotted with black, that it 

 would not be readily discovered by any person but a 

 naturalist.* 



J.R. 



