322 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



back. Most of these caterpillars are entirely naked; some of 

 them are downy, or slightly hairy, but the hairs generally grow 

 immediately from the skin, and not in spreading clusters from 

 little warts on the rings. They have sixteen legs; some raise 

 the last pair when at rest, and some keep these always elevated 

 and do not use them in creeping, in which case these terminal 

 legs are lengthened, and form a forked appendage or tail to 

 the hinder part of the body. Hence such caterpillars are often 

 described as having only fourteen legs, although the wanting 

 members really exist in a modified form. Moreover the cater- 

 pillars of some of the Notodontians seem to be without legs, 

 and even on close examination only the soles of the feet can 

 be perceived. The Notodontians are found chiefly on trees 

 and shrubs, the leaves of which they eat. When about to be 

 transformed, the most of them enclose themselves in cocoons, 

 which arc often very hard and thick, made either of silk, or of 

 silk mixed with fragments of wood and bark ; some make 

 thin, semitransparent, and filmy cocoons under a covering of 

 leaves; some merely cover themselves with grains of earth, 

 held together by silken threads; and a very few go into the 

 ground to transform, without making cocoons. The chrysa- 

 lids taper behind, and are not provided with transverse notched 

 ridges on the back. The moths close their wings over the 

 sides of the body like a sloping roof, when at rest; but the 

 front edges of the hind wings never extend beyond those of 

 the fore wings, and the bristles and hooks for holding the 

 wings together, are never wanting. The antennce are rather 

 long; those of the males are generally doubly feathered on 

 the under side; but the feathery fringe is often very narrow 

 towards the tips, and, in the females, is always narrower than 

 in the other sex ; in a few of both sexes the antennae are not 

 feathered at all. The feelers and tongue, though short, are 

 generally visible. The body is rather long, and not very thick. 

 In what follows, a few only of the m.ost remarkable species 

 will be described. 



Among the many odd-shaped caterpillars belonging to this 

 family, not the least remarkable are those which are called 

 LiMACODESj that is, slug-like, on account of their seeming want 



