PUSS MOTH. 91 



handle so strauge-looking a creature. To add to 

 the threatening aspect of the larva, it has the 

 power of ejecting from an aperture under the 

 head a fluid which may perhaps have the power 

 of keeping off certain foes, but which has no 

 effect upon the human skin. 



The caterpillar feeds upon the willow, and 

 when it is full-fed it crawls down the trunk of 

 the tree and gnaws a slight oval hollow in the 

 bark. With the fragments of the bark and a 

 glutinous secretion which it ejects, it constructs a 

 cocoon of wonderful hardness, so hard, indeed, 

 that a strong knife is required to make any im- 

 pression on it. Being formed of the bark, it is 

 so closely assimilated in colour and general ap- 

 pearance to the trunk of the tree that detection 

 is almost impossible. 



On the first occasion that I ever possessed one 

 of these larvae, it was put to great inconvenience. 

 It had been brought to my rooms at college while 

 I was out, and the servant had placed it on the 

 stone mantelpiece and covered it with an inverted 

 tumbler to j)revent it from escaping. The larva 

 happened to be full-fed, and was constrained by 

 instinct to prepare its cocoon. It could find no 

 material either in the tumbler or the mantel- 

 piece, so it was forced to content itself with the 



