ZEUZERID^. 149 



to the agency of this species ; and in many places there is 

 plentiful evidence, in the open visible holes large enough 

 to put the tip of a finger in, or in the bleeding bark, to show 

 the mischief that is in progress. It was formerly believed 

 that this larva was eaten as a delicacy by the Romans — hence 

 the name Gossus — but the claims of certain large Coleopterous 

 larvse to this distinction have been strongly urged, and it is 

 difficult to believe that the present species, with its rank lig- 

 neous odour, can have been so estimated. 



Pupa very stout, flattened beneath, and with the dorsal 

 region rounded and much curved ; head with a sharp pro- 

 jecting beak ; wing-cases rather prominent ; abdominal 

 segments strongly divided and furnished with rows of stiff 

 short points, anal segment blunt. Colour dark red-brown, 

 abdominal segments lighter brown with incisions paler ; 

 spiracles dark-brown. In a tough oval cocoon of silk and 

 raspings of wood or earthy particles, being usually the 

 hybernaculum within which the full-grown larva has passed 

 the winter and which it does not voluntarily leave, though 

 the pupa state is not assumed until June or even July, and 

 lasts but a week or two. When ready to produce the moth 

 the pupa thrusts itself through the bark of the tree, or out 

 of the cocoon at the surface of the earth, whichever position 

 has been chosen, and its skin remains sticking two-thirds out 

 of the hole. 



In comparison to the abundance of the larva the moth is 

 rarely seen. It may occasionally be found on the trunk of a 

 tree, or on a paling, placed on a projection and holding itself 

 stiffly erect, with wings closely wrapped round its body and 

 fore legs stiff and straight, so that the whole motrh seems to 

 be a half-detached chip of wood or bark with a splinter or 

 two in front. It flies soon after dark, but is rarely, or never, 

 seen on the wing, except that it has a strange fondness for 

 the " sugar " which is spread, by collectors, upon the trunks 

 of trees to attract Noctucc. The extraordinary circumstance 



