CHAPTER IV 



PSEUDO-BOMB YCES, DREPANULM, AND NOCTU^. 



The two first of these groups are gathered by Mr. Newman 

 into one group, which are termed Cuspidates, because the 

 tail of the larva mostly ends in a cusp or point. Some of 

 the strangest caterpillars in the world belong to this group, 

 and we have in sober England a number of Cuspidate larvae 

 which may rival the most wonderful productions of the tropics 

 for beauty of colour and strangeness of form, the latter being 

 in many cases actually grotesque. 



The Pseudo-Bombyces are so called because the Moths look 

 at first sight as if they belonged to the true Bombyces. The 

 structure and habits of the caterpillar, however, show that 

 these Moths are very rightly placed in a separate group. 



The first family is the Dicranurida, so called on account of 

 the structure of the larva. The name is formed from two 

 Greek words, signifying Double-tailed, and is given to these 

 insects because the tail of the larva is very deeply cleft, so as, 

 in fact, to resemble two distinct tails. 



The first of these insects is the common Puss Moth {Dicra- 

 nura vinula), which is represented on Plate XV. Fig. 4. 



This insect affords another example of the effect which can be 

 got out of simple black and white. The upper wings are soft 

 greyish-white and rounded at the tips, and have a peculiar 

 softness in their general aspect. Most of the larger nervm-es 

 are without scales, and show themselves conspicuously, but 

 at the branches they are thickly covered with black scales. The 

 wings are covered with bold markings in black and dark grey, 

 as seen in the illustration. The lower wings are white at the 

 base, deepening to blackish grey towards the margin, and have 

 a few dark spots on the fringe. The large thorax is covered 

 with long, soft down of a snowy-white colour, diversified with 



