254 . MEANS OF DEFENCE OP INSECTS. 



Madam Merian, are armed with singular anal organs % 

 tvhich may have a similar use. Rosel when he first 

 saw the caterpillar of the puss-moth stretched out hid 

 hand with great eagerness, so he tells us, to take the 

 prize ; but when in addition to its grim attitude he 

 beheld it dart forth these menacing catapults, appre- 

 hending they might be poisonous organs, his courage 

 failed him. At length without touching the monster, 

 he ventured to cut off the twig on which it was, and let 

 it drop into a box''!! ! The caterpillar of the gold- 

 tail moth (Bombi/.v chrj/sorhcRU, F.) has a remarkable 

 aperture, which it can open and shut, surrounded by a 

 rim on the upper phrt of each segment. This aperture 

 includes a little cavity, from which it has the power 

 of darting forth small flocks of a cottony matter that 

 fills it''. This manoBUvre is probably connected with 

 our present subject, and ejuployed to defend it from 

 its enemies. It also ejects a fluid from its anus. 



There is a moth in New Holland, the larva of which 

 annoys its foes in a different way : from eight tubeicies 

 in its back it darts forth, when alarmed, as many 

 bunches of little stings, by which it inflicts very pain- 

 ful and venomous wounds*^. 



The caterpillar of the moth of the beech (Bombj/x 

 Fagi, F.), called the lobster, is distinguished by tlie 

 tincommon length of its anterior legs. Mr. Stephens, 

 an acute entomologist, relates to me that he once saw 

 this animal use them to rid itself of a mite that incom- 

 iBoded it. They are probably equally useful in deli- 

 vering it from the ichneumon and its other insect eiie- 



• /«5. Sririrram. t. viii. xxiii. Tfxxii. " I. iv. 122. 



^ Reaum. ii. 155. t. vii./. 4 — 7. " Lewin's Prodromus. 



