PROMINENTS. 57 



Specimens, when canght, except females which it may be well 

 to keep for eggs, should be killed and pinned at once, as many- 

 kinds become very restless when imprisoned in a box and soon 

 damage themselves. Females usually deposit their eggs freely, 

 and in most cases the caterpillars are not difficult to rear when 

 once they begin to feed. Sometimes it is not easy to induce 

 them to commence this very necessary business. The caterpillars, 

 except those of Phalera and Pyg(C7'a^ are without hairs on the 

 body ; those of the true Prominents generally have one, or more, 

 hump on the back ; in some kinds the anal prolegs or hind 

 claspers, are small. When resting the hinder part of the cater- 

 pillar is more or less raised, several of them elevate the front 

 portion also, and frequently the posture assumed is a most 

 curious one. 



The caterpillars of Centra^ Dio'aimra^ and Staitropus have 

 the hind claspers transformed into tail-like appendages, which in 

 the case of the Puss and Kittens take the form of a pair of 

 slender tubes furnished with flagellae, or whips, which can be 

 protruded or withdrawn as occasion may require. These organs 

 are presumably for defensive purposes, but are not always 

 effective in combating the attack of parasitical flies, as these 

 evidently manage to deposit their q:^^^ on the caterpillars not 

 infrequently. 



The pupa, or chrysalis, of some kinds is enclosed in a hard 

 cocoon on tree trunks, and others in a soft cocoon generally 

 underground ; sometimes, however, the cocoon is spun up , 

 between leaves ; occasionally, as for example that of the Buff-tip, 

 the chrysalis is found in the ground without any protecting 

 covering, although the cell in which it was formed may have 

 been flimsily lined with silk. 



Nearly one hundred species are referred to this family in 

 Staudinger's "Catalogue of Paliearctic Lcpidoptera," and of 

 these twenty-five occur, or have been taken, in the British Isles, 

 nearly all of which are accepted as indigenous. Two of the 



