THE LOCUST-TREE CARPENTER-MOTH. 



413 



(Fig. 205), or locust-tree carpenter-moth. The moths of 

 this genus have thick and robust bodies, broad and thickly- 

 veined wings, two very distinct feelers, and antennae, which 



Fig. 205. 



are furnished on the under side, in both sexes, with a double 

 set of short teeth, rather longer in the male than in the 

 female. Their tongue is invisible. They give out a strong 

 and peculiar smell, whence they are sometimes called goat- 

 moths by English writers. 



Some caterpillars, which eat the leaves of plants, live in 

 cases or long oval cocoons, open at both ends, and large 

 enough for the insects to turn around within them, so as to 

 go out of either end. They do not entirely leave these cases, 

 even when moving from place to place, but cling to them on 

 the inside with the legs of the hinder part of their bodies, 

 while their heads and fore legs are thrust out. Thus in 

 moving they creep with their six fore legs only, and drag 

 along their cases after them as they go. These cases are 

 made of silk within, and are covered on the outside with 

 leaves, bits of straw, or little sticks. The caterpillars are 

 nearly cylindrical, generally soft and whitish, except the 

 head and upper part of the first three rings, which are brown 

 and hard ; they have sixteen legs ; the first three pairs are 

 long, strong, and armed with stout claws ; the others 'are 

 very short, consisting merely of slight wart-like elevations 



