286 INSECTS. 



attaches to the whole group, this is not the only re- 

 markable-looking Caterpillar which it contains, and that 

 of the Elephant Moths is even more peculiar. The 

 front segments of this insect can be retracted or pushed 

 forward into a tapering form like the trunk of an Ele- 

 phant, and the segments immediately behind being 

 smaller, and having large spots like eyes, gives a singular 

 resemblance to the head of an Elephant. Some of the 

 larvae in this family feed on wood or pith, living within 

 the stems of plants. The Chrysalids are naked and 

 subterraneous. 



The larvae of the next group, Bombycinse, present 

 several varieties ; some have sixteen legs, some fourteen, 

 some have no visible legs at all. Some have a horny 

 plate on their backs neiar the head, and some have 

 two long tails. The Emperor Moth is garnished with 

 bristles arranged in stars, while others are tufted with 

 hairs, and others again, as the pretty and common 

 Caterpillar of the Tiger Moth, are clothed with long soft 

 fur. This last, the "Woolly Bear" of children, with 

 whom it is almost always a favourite, has a habit of 

 rolling itself into a ball when alarmed, and awful is the 

 memory of nurse's legend, delivered with many warnings, 

 of a lady round whose finger one of these rolled itself 

 so tightly that it (What ? Finger or Caterpillar ?), that 

 IT had to be cut off ! ! In this group are some larvae 

 which construct cases not for their own habitation only, 

 but for that also of the wingless female when come to 

 maturity (see Psyche above, p. 271). This group con- 

 tains the Silkworms ; all those species whose silk is 

 commonly used in manufacture being found here. The 

 cocoon species of the Emperor Moth is remarkable for 

 its elegant flask-like form. 



