62 Transactions. 



furnished with a pair of jaws, horny and strong. The mouth 

 is shaped exceedingly like a pair of pincers, because it 

 opens and shuts from side to side, instead of up and down 

 like all vertebrate animals. This curious arrangement of the 

 mouth affords the creature great convenience when feeding, 

 for on all occasions they feed on the thin edge of the leaf 

 Their mode of feeding is very interesting : they adhere so 

 firmly to whatever they are feeding on with their close- 

 clinging pro-legs. He then guides the edge of the leaf to 

 his mouth by his fore legs, and stretches out his head as far 

 as he can, when he commences a series of rapid bites, at each 

 nibble bringing the head nearer the legs till they almost 

 meet ; then stretching out again in the same way, and so on 

 repeating the process till a large semi-circular indentation is 

 formed. Then shifting his position to another part of the 

 leaf, he recommences another sweep ; then another, and so 

 on till the leaf is left a mere skeleton. 



Another very important organ possessed by all lepidopter- 

 ous larvoi, is the Spinneret for the production of silk, by which 

 means some species merely suspend themselves during the 

 pupa state, while other species again enclose themselves in 

 a silk shroud, where they lie till the time of their transfor- 

 mation. Many of the cocoons made by the Bovxhycinoe 

 are very beautiful and very varied both in form and tex- 

 ture. The moths of all the various Silk-worms belong to 

 the Bomhycince. Some species of the Tineince are remark- 

 able for their patriarchal habits of living in tents of the 

 most beautiful net-work. I once saw a colony of the small 

 ermine Yponomeuta evonymella in Kirkconnel avenue ; 

 the top of the hedge was covered with their silk for eight or 

 nine yards : if the colony is a large one they just keep on 

 adding to the tent as they require more food. The tissue of 

 their work resembles a species of pale crape ; the troop will 

 sometimes number several hundreds, so that in a short time 

 the hedges to a great extent are soon rendered leafless. I 

 I once saw the same thing at the Ruttonbridge, the larva of 

 Melitoia artemis, the marsh Fritillary being gregarious, they 



