COLOURS AND FORMS OF INSECTS. 



153 



black as jet; his forehead purple; his feet and hinder 

 parts green; his tail two-forked and black; the whole 

 body stained with a kind of red spots, which run 

 along the neck and shoulder-blade, not unlike the form 

 of St Andrew's cross, or the letter X made thus 

 crosswise, and a white line drawn down his back to 

 his tail; all which add much beauty to his whole body. 

 And it is to me observable, that at a fixed age this 

 caterpillar gives over to eat, and towards winter 

 comes to be covered over with a strange shell or crust, 

 called an cun'ilia ;* and so lives a kind of dead life 

 without eating all the winter. And as others of seve- 

 ral kinds turn to be several kinds of flies and vermin 

 the spring following; so this caterpillar then turns to 

 be a painted butterfly. '| 



Another caterpillar, called by collectors the lobster 

 (Siauropus Fagi, Gerimar.), which is rarely met 

 with, has not only very long legs, a circumstance un- 

 common among caterpillars, but assumes an attitude 

 similar to the puss just figured, though the shape of 

 the creature renders it much more strange. This 

 caterpillar was known to MoufTet, and is indifferently 

 figured by him, as well as by Albin and Donovan; 



Lobster caterpillar {Stnuropus Fagi, Germar.) 



* See Insect architecture, p. 194. 

 t Walton's Angler, chap. v. 



