LEPIDOPTERA.—HEPIALIDA. 377 
the most striking in this respect, the wings of the males being pure 
white, and those of the females yellow, varied with darker markings ; 
the former sex has obtained the name of the Ghost moth from its pecu- 
liar habit of hovering with a pendulum-like motion for a great length 
of time in one situation (often in churchyards), where the female is 
concealed in the grass, its white colour rendering it very conspicuous : 
the other species are more discursive, flying about low herbage at the 
roots of grass. The feet in this genus are destitute of spurs, the pos- 
terior tibia in the males being very thickly clothed with long hairs on 
the outside (fig. 104. 14.) ; the same part in H. hectus is remarkably 
dilated, and the tarsi are wanting (De Geer and Van Heyden in Bul- 
letin Sc. Nat. January, 1831,) (fig. 104. 15.) ; the mouth is entirely 
obsolete; the larve are subterranean, feeding on the roots of plants ; 
and the females have the power of discharging their eggs singly to a 
great distance, with considerable force, when alarmed. 
The Goat moth (Phal. Bomb. Cossus Linn., Cossus ligniperda 
Fabr.) is one of the largest British Lepidopterous insects. Its large 
red fleshy larvae, equalling in size a man’s finger, have been regarded 
by Ray and Linneus as the Cossus of the Roman epicures ; it feeds 
upon the wood of willow trees, which it perforates in every direction, 
and from its size so greatly weakens them, that they are often blown 
down with the first strong wind; the antenne are pectinated to the tip 
in both sexes ; the labial palpi are present, although the other parts of 
the mouth are obsolete. The inimitable dissections of Lyonnet of the 
larva, contained in his Zraité Anatomique de la Chenille qui ronge 
le Bois de Saule (4to. La Haye, 1760 and 1762), and of the chry- 
salis and imago, published in his posthumous memoirs, may be ac- 
counted the most elaborate and complete of any hitherto published. 
De Geer and Réaumur also exercised their talents upon this species. 
The insect, previous to bursting forth, and whilst still a chrysalis, 
pushes itself half out of the orifice formed by the larva, with the as- 
sistance of the spines on the abdominal segments, and the imago leaves 
the exuvize thus sticking out of the trunk when it has escaped. The 
caterpillars emit a very strong scent, whence the English name of the 
moth, and also discharge a fetid liquid, which probably serves to 
moisten the wood. In default of their usual food, these larve have 
been observed to feed on the bodies of other insects (Duponchel in 
Ann. Sci. Nat., June, 1831; see also Loudon’s Gard. Mag. Nos. 78. 
91. and Arboretum Britann. p. 1386, for further notices of its history. ). 
