ELEPHANT HAWK MOTH. 73 



as to it being correct) of the sickness being caused by some small 

 creeping thing taken up by cattle in the grass on which they are 

 feeding. 



Now (though not myself qualified to give an opinion on veterinary 

 matters), it chanced that in the year 1887 I received two applications, 

 in each case with specimens accompanying, regarding a very large and 

 repulsive-looking caterpillar, called the Murrain Worm, " sometimes 

 said by popular voice to give the disease called ' murrain ' when licked 

 or swallowed by a cow." This caterpillar, on investigation, proved to 

 be the larva of the Elephant Hawk Moth [Chcerocampa elpenor), and it 

 seems almost certain that the above observations must refer to tico 

 parts of the same attack. In one case we have the large luridly-coloured 

 grub called the Murrain Worm, and credited with causing murrain in 

 cattle ; in the other, we have the precise report of cattle-sickness 

 credited to some small creeping thing swallowed as the origin of the 

 illness. 



It may certainly be supposed that the caterpillar is entirely innocent 

 of causing the sickness ; but, looking at the circumstance of this larva 

 especially frequenting ditches and feeding on plants that grow by the 

 water, it appears to me very likely that sickness may be caused by 

 poisonous water plants, and the caterpillar, being seen accompanying, 

 be erroneously considered to be the cause of the mischief, and it may 

 therefore be of interest to give some information as to the habits of 

 the caterpillar. 



Such details as I have are as follows. In the summer of 1887 

 Miss Fleming, writing from Derry Lea, Monasterevan , Co. Kildare, 

 Ireland, remarked : — 



"There is a very large caterpillar sometimes found here (I have 

 seen it four inches long) which is said by popular voice to give the 

 disease called murrain when licked or swallowed by a cow. The 

 people call this creeping thing a ' Murrain Worm.' . . . The last 

 I saw was on the approach, travelling as if it was running for its life." 



On August 7th (in the same year) Miss Fleming forwarded me a 

 specimen of this so-called " Murrain Worm," which turned out to be 

 the caterpillar of the " Elephant Hawk Moth." 



On August 20th another specimen of the same kind of caterpillar 

 was sent me by Mr. N. Richardson, from the Estate Office, Castle 

 Comer, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland. This was beginning to spin itself up 

 in a light web, and the figure of the caterpillar at p. 72 gives a very 

 good idea of its strange shape. The larva is three inches, possibly 

 more, in length, and when extended the front segments taper rapidly to 

 the head, but it has a power of retracting the head and the first and 

 second segments immediately behind it into the third, which is then 

 pufifed out, and the strange shape, added to the frequently peculiar 



