2S8 



Marvels of Insect Life. 



The third species (the elk-horned deer-fly ■'^) is a httle smaller than the two 

 already described, but resembling the second in colour. The horns are 

 very remarkable, being suddenly dilated into a flat plate, strongly toothed 

 round the outer margin, and strikingly resembling the horns of the elk, 

 after which it has been named. They are of a yellowish colour margined 

 with brown and tipped with black on the three upper teeth. The fourth 

 species (the short-horned deer-fly -) dift'ers considerably from the rest. It is stouter 

 in form, of a nearly black colour, with a yellow ring at the base of the abdomen ; 

 the wings have dusky stripes, and the head is compressed and dilated laterally, 

 with yery small, flat horns, which are black with a pale centre, and look exactly 

 like the rudiments of the horns of the two preceding species. None of the females 

 has any trace of the horns, and Mr. Saunders places in the same genus a species ^ 

 which has no horns in either sex. It is of a shining black colour, and resembles 

 the stag-horned deer-fly in form, size, and general appearance." 



The Hammock-Moth. 



We haye in this country a number of yery small moths whose caterpillars hide 

 their real nature from birds and other enemies by constructing a coat under whose 



coyer they feed 

 securely. Some 

 of these we haye 

 already described 

 under the title 

 of basket-worms 



(page_ 49)- I" 

 America there is 

 a genus'* of much 

 larger and totally 

 unrelated moths 

 which haye a 

 similar habit. 

 One of these ^ is 

 a reddish - grey 



Photjby] [H.Baslin. wlngcd, StOUt- 



StALK-KVEU il.Y. I, J- J J.I 



bodied moth, an 



One of the eccentricities of Nature that recalls the hammtr-heatled shark among fishes. The eyes are 



borne upon e.xtensions from the sides of the head ; and it will be seen that these outgrowths also bear inch and a luilt 

 the small antennae close up to the eves. It is a native of South Africa, and is only one-eighth uf tlie photo- 

 graph in siie. ' across the ex- 

 panded wings. The caterpillar constructs a tough case by spinning leaves together. 

 This case is about an inch long, and open at one end to allow the caterpillar to 

 protrude its fore-parts and carry the case from place to place on its food-plant, 

 temporarily fixing it by silk mooring threads. When it has eattni all the leaves 

 within reach, it cuts the threads and moves to a more leaf\- part. 



I^ut another species^ in South America exhibits an extraordinary \-ariation 

 of this habit, for instead of sewing up leaves it utilizes its own excrement, which is 

 of a flattened form specially suited for this use, and builds u]) a spindle-shaped 



^Elaphomyiaalcicornis. " E. brevicornis. ^E.]iolita. ' IVToplioia. ■' 1'. melshciniiTi. '• 1', sanguinolenta. 



