RED UNDERWING. 247 



The majority have ten feet, six of which, placed 

 upon the pectoral segments, are scaly and conical ; 

 the other four are memhranous, a pair of them 

 situate near the hinder part o the abdomen, the 

 other at the extremity. The abdominal legs are 

 sometimes wholly wanting, hut the anal pair is 

 indispensably requisite to enable the animal to 

 execute its peculiar movements. Many of these 

 caterpillars feed only in the night, and may be 

 observed during the day, if the eye happen to dis- 

 tinguish them from the surrounding twigs which 

 they often strikingly resemble, with their bodies 

 suspended in the air perfectly motionless, forming 

 an angle with the branch to which they cling by 

 their hinder prolegs. The moths, however, are by 

 no means exclusively nocturnal, and several of 

 them may occasionally be noticed on the wing even 

 in the heat of the day. Their bodies are generally 

 slender, the abdomen of the male terminating in a 

 small tuft : the antennae in that sex frequently pec- 

 tinated, at other times simple ; the palpi short and 

 somewhat cylindrical ; the proboscis occasionally ob- 

 solete, when developed, not very long and nearly 

 membranous; the wings ample, and extended almost 

 horizontally during repose. The first species selected 

 to illustrate this division is named 



