PUSS-MOTH. 1G7 



angle thus formed an oblong structure was made, composed, 

 as before, of wood-raspings and silk, but much stronger in 

 texture than the winter cell. In a few weeks (four, if we 

 recollect aright) the moth came forth. (J. R) 



A wood-boring caterpillar, of a species of moth 'much 

 rarer than the preceding (^yEgeria asiliforniis, Stephens), 

 exhibits great ingenuity in constructing a cell for its meta- 

 morphosis. We observed above a dozen of them during 

 this summer (1829) in the trunk of a poplar, one side of 

 which had been stripped of its bark. It was this portion 

 of the trunk which all the caterpillars selected for their 

 final retreat, not one having been observed where the tree 

 was covered with bark. The ingenuity of the little 

 architect consisted in scooping its cell almost to the very 

 surface of the wood, leaving only an exterior covering of 

 unbroken wood, as thin as writing-paper. Previous, there- 

 fore, to the chrysalis making its way through this feeble 

 barrier, it could not have been suspected that an insect 

 was lodged under the smooth wood. We observed more 

 than one of these in the act of breaking through this cover- 

 ing, within which there is, besides, a round moveable lid of 

 a sort of brown wax. (J. R.) 



Another architect caterpillar, frequently to be met with 

 in July on the leaves of the willow and the poplar, is, in 

 the fly-state, called the puss-moth (^Centra vinula). The 

 caterpillar is produced from brown-coloured shining eggs, 

 about the size of a pin's head, which are deposited — one, 

 two, or more together — on the upper surface of a leaf. In 

 the course of six or eight weeks (during which time it 

 casts its skin thrice) it arrives at its full growth, wdien it 



Eggs of the Puss-Moth. 



is about as thick, and nearly as long, as a man's thumb, 

 and begins to prepare- a structure in which the pupa may 



