-MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. '235 



over its back, then become concave, at the same time 

 elevating its tail, the extremity of which remains in a 

 horizontal position, with two short horns like ears be- 

 hind it. Thus the six anterior legs are in the air, and 

 the whole animal looks like a quadruped in miniature ; 

 the tail beino- its head — the horns its ears — and the re- 

 flexed head simulating a tail curled over its back*. In 

 this seemingly unnatural attitude it will remain without 

 motion for a very long time. 



Some lepidopterous larvae, that fix the one half of the 

 body and elevate the other, agitate the elevated part, 

 whether it be the head or the tail, as if to strike what 

 disturbs them ^. The giant caterpillar of a large North 

 American moth [Ceracampa regalis) is armed behind the 

 head and at the back of the anterior segments with seven 

 or eight strong curved spines from half to three-fourths 

 of an inch in length. Mr. Abbot tells us that this cater- 

 pillar is called in Virginia the hickory-horned devil, and 

 that when disturbed it draws up its head, shaking or 

 striking it from side to side ; which attitude gives it so 

 formidable an aspect, that no one, he affirms, will ven- 

 ture to handle it, people in general dreading it as much 

 as a rattle-snake. When, to convince the Negroes that 

 it was harmless, he himself took hold of this animal in 

 their presence, they used to reply that it could not sting 

 him, but would them ^. The species of a genus of beetles 

 named Malachim^ endeavour to alarm their enemies and 

 show their rage by puffing out and inflating four vesicles 

 from the sides of their body, which are of a bright red, 

 soft, and of an irregular shape. When the cause of 



* Rcaum. ii. 260. t. 20. f. 10. 1 1. Compare Sepp. IV. /. i./. 3-7. 

 '' Ibid. i. 100. " Smith's Abbot's Ins. of Georgia, \\, 121. 



