122 TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 



There are some moths belonging to the Bornbycina group 

 which have great resemblance to the group Noctuina (or those 

 which are usually night-fliers), on account of the size of their bodies 

 and the proportions of their wings. They have the antennae longer 

 than the thorax, and they are pectinated in the males. The trunk 

 is rudimentary, but perfectly distinct, and the fore-wings are 

 frequently marked with a projecting tuft of scales on the inner 

 margin. This, when the wings are in repose and in their usual 

 roof shape, forms a little prominence on the outline of the wing, 

 whence the term "prominent," which is applied to several of the 

 species (Stainton). There is nothing very striking about the 

 perfect insects, but the larvae present many singular structural pe- 

 culiarities. They are as a whole very variable in form. At one 

 extreme of the series the Cerura larvae have only fourteen legs, 

 but they have two long projecting tails upon the last segment of 

 the body ; at the other extreme the larvae have sixteen legs and 

 no peculiarity of form — those of the Buff Tip Moth for instance. 

 Most have, however, the gift of holding the hind segments of the 

 body erect when in repose. Many of the larvae are hairless, but 

 they are downy in the Buff Tip, and usually there are projections 

 on the twelfth segment. The pupse are smooth, and rarely make 

 a cocoon. 



What our country people call the Puss Moth the French term 

 the Fork Tail; it is one of those Notodontidcs of which we are now 

 taking notice, and English entomologists call it Cerura vinula, 

 whilst on the other side of the channel Dicranura is its generic 

 name. This moth is very common in the last week of April, 

 and during the whole of May, and it flies in damp places, near 

 willows, sallows, and poplar trees during the evening. All day 

 it hides under the leaves or in the hollow trees. It has whitish 

 wings with numerous V-shaped markings upon them. The female 

 lays its eggs, which are hatched early in the same month of June, 

 and the caterpillars may be seen here and there, but not in 

 companies, upon the poplar leaves. Their colour is almost black 

 when they are small, but a few weeks elapse, and the caterpillars 

 having moulted several times and grown large, very different- 

 looking insects result. These smooth caterpillars, with their great 

 heads drawn back as it were into the first segment of the body, 



