226 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 



the animals so distinguislied, at their last moult, pre- 

 vious to their assuming the pupa, (in which state they 

 are protected by other contrivances,) appear with a 

 smooth skin, without any of the tubercles, hairs, or 

 spines, for whicli they were before remarkable^. Won- 

 derful are the varieties of this kind which insects ex- 

 hibit : — but upon these I shall treat more at large on a 

 future occasion. I shall only here select afewfacts more 

 particularly connected with my present subject. The 

 caterpillar of the great tiger-moth {Bomhi/x Cfija, F.), 

 which is beset with long dense hair, when rolled up 

 — an attitude it usually assumes if alarmed — cannot 

 then be taken without great difficulty, slipping repeat- 

 edly from the pressure of the fingers. If its hairs do 

 not render it distasteful, this may often be the mean 

 of its escape from the birds. — That little destructive 

 beetle, AntJireniis Muscorum^ F., which so annoys the 

 entomologist, if it get^into his cabinets, when in the 

 larva state, being covered with bunches of diverging 

 hairs, glides from between your fingers as if it were 

 lubricated with oil. The two tufts of hairs near the 

 tail of this are most curious in their structure, being 

 jointed through their whole length, and terminating in 

 a sharp halberd-shaped point^. — I have a small lepido- 

 pterous caterpillar from Brazil, the upper side of which 

 is thickly beset with strong, sharp, branching spines, 

 which would enter into the finger, and would probably 

 render it a painful morsel to any minor enemy. 



' Reaum. v. 94. 



'• This was first pointed out (o me 5)y Mr. Briggs of tiie Post-office, who 

 sent me an accurate drawing of the animal and of one of its hairs. I did not 

 at that time discover that it had been figured by DcGeer,iv. <. viii./. 1-1, 



