I06 TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 



membranous capsule, which is situated on either side of the body 

 at the base of the abdomen, and which is covered with some 

 hairs that can be made to vibrate. The fondness of the moth 

 for honey leads it into bee-hives, and it is most remarkable that 

 the insect should know that honey is to be got there. The bees, 

 moreover, do not rush upon the robber, but employ every artifice 

 to shut it out or wall it up. 



The caterpillar is perhaps the largest among the European 

 kinds. It is usually lemon yellow in colour, and a fresh green 

 tint may be noticed towards the head and the lower part of the 

 sides ; there are seven oblique violet stripes on the sides, and 

 the spiracles are black, edged with white. The horn is yellowish, 

 rough, and inclined backwards. Sometimes the colour is by no 

 means like this, for some caterpillars have been found whose 

 prevailing colour is brownish olive, and whose lateral stripes are 

 darker. A fresh green tint is accompanied by dark blue stripes 

 in others. This great caterpillar lives on the potato leaf, the 

 jasmine, and the common tea tree {Lyciiim barbariiin)\ and when 

 full grown it hides in the earth, and undergoes its metamorphosis 

 into the chrysalis. 



The death's head moth is more common in Asia and in Africa 

 than in Europe, and there is no doubt that many of the pupse 

 are destroyed in this country and in France during severe winters. 



Perhaps the largest sphinges in the world live in Australia, 

 and their caterpillars feed upon the Banksia trees and bushes, 

 which form most important parts of the foliage of the landscape 

 of that country. 



The sphinges gradually become more and more like that 

 great tribe of moths which may be considered to be represented 

 by the silkworm moth. Thus there are some sphinges which 

 have slender, flexible, or more or less pectinated antennae, and 

 rudimentary trunks instead of the long and flexible organs of 

 some of the hawks. Such species of the genus Svicrinthiis as 

 the eyed hawks, poplar hawks, and lime hawks, live upon willow, 

 poplar, birch, and apple trees, and connect by their structures 

 the death's head moths, the privet, and humming-bird moths with 

 the Bombyciiia or the spinners. 



The insects of this group are very numerous, and often attain 



