THAUMATOPCEA. 253 



becoming detached, are blown about by the wind, and are 

 said to render it dangerous to approach their nests. 



"The larv«, when first hatched, construct a temporary nest 

 for themselves on the branches of the oak, and change their 

 situation from time to time, until they are about two-thirds 

 grown, when the entire brood unite in forming a general nest 

 on the trunk ; this nest, when completed, is about eighteen 

 inches long, six broad, and composed of grey silk, resembling 

 the surface of the tree ; but the most curious fact in their 

 history is the extraordinary regularity with which the larvae 

 proceed, towards sunset, in search of food ; at their head is a 

 chief, by whose movements their procession appears regulated; 

 he is followed by three or four in a single line, the head of the 

 second touching the tail of the first, &c.; then comes an equal 

 series of pairs, next of threes, and so on as far as fifteen or 

 twenty, forming a band several feet in length; sometimes 

 the order is rather different, the leader being followed by two, 

 then three, four, and so on ; but at all times the procession 

 moves on at an even pace, each file treading upon the steps of 

 those that precede it, through all the sinuosities made by the 

 chief. They do not invariably return to their nest before morn- 

 ing, but may sometimes be found during the day assembled in 

 irregular masses, heaped upon each other." {Stephens.) 



The Moths themselves are rather small and obscurely 

 coloured ; we append an account of the commonest and best- 

 known species. 



THE PROCESSIONARY MOTH. THAUMATOPCEA PROCESSIONEA. 



Bombyx processionea, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. (ed. x.) i. p. 500, no. 

 21 (1758); i. (2) p. 819, no. 37 (1767) ; Esper, Schmett. 

 iii. p. 150, Taf. 29, figs. 1-5 (1785); Hiibner, Eur. 

 Schmett. iii. figs. 159, 160 (1880?); Godart, L^pid. 

 France, iv. p. 126, pi. 12, figs. 5, 6 (1822). 



