HORNET MOTH. 19 



divested of plumage, except on the borders, 

 which are edged with a narrow band of brown. 

 The thorax is also brown, mottled with a darker 

 hue, and the abdomen is yellow, banded with 

 dark red. So close is the resemblance between 

 this insect and the wasps, that when showing 

 my collection, I have often found great difficulty 

 in persuading the spectators that the insect was 

 really a moth, and have been obliged to place a 

 veritable hornet by the side of the Hornet Moth 

 before they could see the distinction between 

 the two insects. 



The larva of the Hornet Moth is one of the 

 wood-borers, and lives in the interior of poplar- 

 trees. It can generally be found in the trunk at 

 a little distance from the ground. When the 

 insect is about to pass into the perfect state, the 

 chrysalis works its way through the gallery which 

 it had bored when a caterpillar, and partly pro- 

 jects, so that when the Moth makes its appear- 

 ance it passes at once into the air. Some- 

 times the chrysalis emerges altogether, and 

 can be found among the loose bark near the 

 roots. 



A figure of this Moth is given in Plate I. 

 fig. 6. 



On the same plate, fig. 7, is another insect of 

 2 



