3062 



THE JOINTED ANIMALS 



be found during the day resting on the trunks of trees, palings, or other suitably 

 colored objects. A common British representative is the buff tip (Phalera buceph- 

 ala), although it is more often met with in the larval state than adult. Yellow and 

 black spotted, the young larvae may be found together, feeding gregariously upon 

 elms and other trees. The silver-gray wings, streaked and barred with rich browns, 

 their tips painted with a patch of pale yellow, appear when closed, as the moth rests 

 on the gray bark of a tree, exactly like a short, gray stick with the top beveled off 

 on either side, and partially decayed. The puss moth (Dicranura vinula), is an- 

 other common British species often found on poplar trees in the larval state, though 

 the perfect insect is seldom met with. The latter has white fore-wings, tinged and 

 marked with gray; the thorax being spotted with black. The compressed, globular, 

 dull red egg is laid in the summer months on the leaves of the poplar or sallow, and 

 the tiny caterpillars are at first quite black, but become greener as they grow older. 

 When full grown, they assume, at rest, the characteristic position represented in 



PUSS MOTH (1) WITH CATERPILLAR (2) in two stages of development, and (3) COCOON; (4) CATERPILLAR OF 



THE LOBSTER MOTH. 



the accompanying illustration, whence they derive their name of puss moths, from 

 some fancied resemblance to a cat. The bifurcate tail emits thin red filaments from 

 the apex of each branch when the larva is irritated; the color being then bright 

 green, with a red-brown or chocolate-pink patch margined with white behind the 

 head, narrowed and then broadened at the sixth segment, and narrowing again to 

 the tail. The cocoon is very tough, formed in some crevice of the bark gnawed 

 into a convenient cup by the strong jaws of the larva. On the top are glued the 

 chips thus obtained, and, with bits of lichen added, it almost defies detection among 

 the surrounding knobs and rounded bits of bark. The species is common through- 

 out Europe and Asia. The caterpillar of the -lobster moth (Stauropus fagi) re- 

 sembles nothing to be found in nature save those of the closely-allied species, as 

 may be seen from the illustration. The moth is found, but not commonly, through- 

 out Europe, and the larva feeds in July upon the oak, birch, and other trees. It is 

 supposed that the extraordinary attitude, with head and tail erect, has proved bene- 



