MOTH-CATERPILLARS. 191 



he adds, that they will not touch anything wrapped in a 

 lion's skin ! — the poor little insects, says Eeaunmr sarcasti- 

 cally, being probably in bodily fear of so terrible an animal.* 

 Such are the stories which fill the imagination even of 

 philosophers, till real science entirely expels them. 



The effluvium of camphor or turpentine, or fumigation by 

 sulphur or chlorine, may sometimes kill them, when in the 

 winged state, but this will have no effect upon their eggs, 

 and seldom upon the caterpillars ; for they wrap themselves 

 up too closely to be easily reached by any agent except 

 heat. This, when it can be conveniently applied, will be 

 certain either to dislodge or to kill them. When the 

 effluvium of turpentine, however, reaches the caterpillar, 

 Bonnet says it falls into convulsions, becomes covered with 

 livid blotches, and dies.f 



The mother insect takes care to deposit her eggs on or near 

 such substances as she instinctively foreknows will be best 

 adapted for the food of the young, taking care to distribute 

 them so that there may be a plentiful supply and enough 

 of room for each. We have found, for example, some of 

 those caterpillars feeding upon the shreds of cloth used in 

 training wall-fruit trees ; but we never saw more than two 

 caterpillars on one shred. This scattering of the eggs in 

 many places renders the effects of the caterpillars more in- 

 jurious, from their attacking many parts of a garment or a 

 piece of stuff at the same time. (J. E.) 



When one of the caterpillars of this family issues from 

 the egg, its first care is to provide itself with a domicile, 

 which indeed seems no less indispensable to it than food ; 

 for, like all caterpillars that feed under cover, it will not 

 eat while it remains unprotected. Its mode of building is 

 very similar to that which is employed by other caterpillars 

 that make use of extraneous materials. The foundation or 

 frame-work is made of silk secreted by itself, and into this 

 it interweaves portions of the material upon which it feeds. 

 It is said by Bingley, that " after having spun a fine coating 

 of silk immediately around its body, it cuts the filaments of the 



* Reaumur, 'Mem. Hist, Insectes,' iii. 70. 



t ' Contemplation de la Nature,' part xii. chap. x. note. 



