Earth-Measurers. 



317 



Phnin hVi [IF. West. 



An Amber Spring-tail. 



.A ^pring-tai!. apiiareiitly rrlatcd to tlir mocicni species sliown below, found 

 in amber, and iiiagnitieil tuenty-eiglit times. 



caterpillars have learned to balance tlu mselves as it were upon them, to hold the 

 body extended and rigid for hours, so that tliev look like twigs or branches of their 

 food -plant. In this position, however, they are mostly helped by a thread from 

 the mouth to the stem. Most of them are coloured some shade of green or 

 brown that harmonizes with the stem they are holding to, and in many cases 

 the resemblance is greatly helped by warts upion the skin which bear a wonderful 

 likeness to the leaf-buds upon the real shoots. xA.lthough many of these cater- 

 pillars feed onlv in the evening or at night, they do not hide themselves by 

 day as other night-feeders do, 

 but remain extended as twdgs, tt^-- ' 

 etc., quite openly. Some of the 

 best known, because largest, of 

 these twig-like caterpillars are 

 those of the swallow-tailed moth,^ 

 the brimstone-moth,"' the oak 

 beautv,^ brindled beauty,^ and 

 peppered-moth,^ of which we give 

 some photographic examples. 



Some of the smaller species 

 are not large enough to cai'ry out 

 this twig mimicry, and they elude 

 observation by some other resem- 

 blances, the brmistone looking 

 like a piece torn out of a leaf but 

 still clinging to it. Another looks 

 like an empty snail-shell^ — if it 

 looked like a full one it would be 

 as likely to be eaten as thougii it 

 resembled a caterpillar ! The 

 caterpillar of the large emerald ' 

 feeds on biich and hazel, and so 

 clings to a twig or leaf-stalk that 

 it has the appearance of a catkin. 

 Its colour is brown marked with 

 green, and its segments appear to 

 overlap, and resemble the over- 

 lapping scales of the catkin. Its 

 form, which is short and thick, 

 helps the resemblance. The young caterpillar of the earl\- thorn-moth'^ twists 

 itself on a leaf in such a remarkable manner that it looks like the excrement of a 

 snail. The caterpillar of the Brussels-lace moth >' feeds upon lichens, and its colours 

 and markings are such that it is exceedingl\- dilhcult to detect it among the similarly 

 coloured iood-plant. The two caterpillars represented slightl>- in excess of the 

 natural size on page 319, are respectively of the brindled beauty moth and the 

 peppered moth, two of our largest native representatives of the group. 



1 Ourapteryx samlnicaria. - Kumia cratacgata. => Amphidasy.s strataria. * Lycia hirtaria 



=^ Pachys betularia. « Aspilates gilvaria. ' Goomctra i)apilionaria. » Sclcnia illunaria. 



^ Ciccn-a liclicnaria. 



Flwlo hy] 



[ir. West. 



Long-horned Tomocerus 



With the spring partly extended. Between the second and third. pairs of legs 

 will be seen the tnbe whose fnnction is not nnderslood. The Insect is shown on 

 a scale of nine times, the actual size. 



