The Protective Methods of certain Larve. 185 
sules of trees and plants, also escape to a very great extent from 
the attacks of outside enemies. 
Of the smooth and outside-feeding larve, several means of 
self-preservation are adopted. Some fall from their food-plant 
suddenly on the slightest alarm, either curled round tightly or 
extended at full length; others, which live on tall trees, let 
themselves fall attached to a silken thread, by which they regain 
their position slowly when the danger is past. 
Many of the larve of the Sphingide hold firmly on to their 
food-plant, whilst they throw back their head and cephalic seg- 
ments, frequently waving from side to side, in a menacing atti- 
tude. The privet hawk, the eyed hawk, &c., are fair examples 
of this; whilst the curious larva of the puss moth, C. vinula, 
not only acts in this manner, but has also the power of lashing 
out with two filaments which are exserted from two tail-like 
processes, for the purpose, no doubt, of driving off ichneumon 
flies. 
Certain brightly coloured larve, such as the cinnabar, are so 
acrid to the taste that no bird will touch them, nor do they 
appear to suffer much from the attack of ichneumon flies. Their 
bright colours are supposed to act as a kind of signal to warn 
their enemies that they are not good to eat. 
The most interesting group, however, of all is that in which 
the larve depend for their protection upon their mimicry, or 
their resemblance to some inanimate object; and of these the 
loopers, or Geometrina, are the most remarkable, resembling, 
as most of them do, the stems and twigs of various trees and 
plants. 
To describe these would be beyond the scope of these notes, but 
a week or two ago I tried an experiment with one of these, which 
was not without interest. Iwas sitting writing in my room when 
I noticed, on some flowers in a bowl on my table, a bright green 
geometer larva ; I do not know the species, but it was on some 
nasturtiums, the stems of which it exactly resembled. This 
larva was holding on by its anal claspers, and waving its body 
about, apparently searching for its food-plant. I touched it 
with my finger, and it instantly became rigid; the prolegs were 
folded forwards close to the body, and the cephalic or head- 
segments were contracted. It remained in this attitude, exactly 
resembling a broken stalk of the nasturtium, for a minute and a 
half, when it very slowly extended its segments, unfolded its 
prolegs, and slightly waving its head, the waving gradually 
extending to the whole body, until it once more became very 
energetic. I again touched it, and instantly it re-assumed the 
appearance of a stem, remaining precisely in the position it 
occupied when touched. I now bent the animal’s body into 
various curves, and in most cases it allowed its muscles to follow 
