MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 223 



more probable by the fact that, in several instances, the 

 animals so distinguished, at their last moult, previous to 

 their assuming the pupa, (in which state they are pro- 

 tected by other contrivances,) appear with a smooth skin, 

 without any of the tubercles, hairs, or spines for which 

 they were before remarkable''. Wonderful are the va- 

 rieties of this kind which insects exhibit: — but upon these 

 I shall treat more at large on a future occasion. I shall 

 only here select a few facts more particularly connected 

 with my present subject. The caterpillar of the great 

 tiger-moth [Euprepia Caja), which is beset with long 

 dense hairs, when rolled up — an attitude it usually as- 

 sumes if alarmed — caimot then be taken without great 

 difficulty, slipping repeatedly from the pressure of the 

 fingers. If its hairs do not render it distasteful, this may 

 often be the mean of its escape from the birds. — That 

 little destructive beetle, Anthremis Musorum, which so 

 annoys the entomologist, if it gets into his cabinets, 

 when in the larva state being covered with bunches of 

 diverging hairs, glides from between your fingers as if it 

 were lubricated with oil. The two tufts of hairs near 

 the tail of this are most curious in their structure, being 

 jointed through their whole length, and terminating in 

 a sharp halberd-shaped point''. — I have a small lepido- 

 pterous caterpillar from Brazil, the upper side of which 

 is thickly beset with strong, sharp, branching spines, 

 which would enter into the finger, and would probably 

 render it a painful morsel to any minor enemy. 



" Reaum. v. 94. 



•» This was first pointed out to me by Mr. Briggs of the Post-office, 

 who sent me an accurate drawing of the animal and of one of its 

 hairs. I did not at that time discover that it had been figured by De 

 Geer, iv. /. viii./. 1-7. 



