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INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



many others should not be similarly coloured, when 

 we consider that their stomachs occupy the greater 

 portion of their bodies, and are g-enerally gorged with 

 *bod. It would 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 grey or brown bark of the 

 branches where they usually rest when not feeding. 



Caterpillars of the Clifden nonpareil feeding on the grey poplar. 



A marked instance of this occurs in the caterpillar of 

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

 den nonpareil {Catocala fraxini, 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. 



