COLOURS AND FORMS OF INSECTS. 151 



look merely at the forms of caterpillars, we think it 

 must be apparent to the most indifferent observer, 

 that, though they have often a rather ungainly, 

 repulsive, and sometimes a formidable aspect, yet 

 this renders them in numerous instances very conspi- 

 cuous. The forms, also, we may remark, which appear 

 disagreeable or threatening to us, may not seem so 

 to birds and ichneumons which make them their prey. 

 One of the most singular of these forms of caterpil- 

 lars occurs in that of the pebble-moth (Notodonta 

 Ziczac, Stephens*), the form being such that it is 

 not easy for one unacquainted with it to tell which is 

 the head and which the tail. The puss (^Cerura Vi- 

 nula) is another whose form and attitudes cannot fail 

 to attract the notice of the most indifferent observer. 

 Dr. Shaw, in his Zoological Lectures, quotes from a 

 country newspaper a most ludicrous account of this 

 *' monster," as it is there called, having a head like a 

 lion, jaws like a shark, a horn like a unicorn, and 

 two tremendous stings in its tail. The gross exag- 

 geration of this description will be obvious from the 

 following accurate figures ; yet how formidable soever 

 this caterpillar may appear to us (even Rosel, the 

 entomologist, was afraid of it at first), we know that 

 no one is more readily pounced upon by at least two 

 species of ichneumons, which seem, therefore, not to 

 be afraid to deposit their eggs in its body t; and it is 

 no doubt often made prey of by birds, at least in its 

 young state ; for when full grown, being about as thick 

 as a man's thumb, it may prove rather too bulky a 

 morsel;^. 



Our readers may like to see, by way of contrast 

 to the exaggerated account quoted by Shaw, the 

 excellent d(^scription of the puss-caterpillar given 

 by old Isaac Walton. "The very colours of caterpil- 



''■ Figured in Insect Architecture, p. 172. 

 t See ibid., pp. 195 and 325-6. + J. R. 



