CATERPILLARS INNUMERABLE 133 



The Kentish glory is another moth famous for 

 the power of its males to find a female exposed 

 far away, and the sight of these magnificent 

 creatures beating up wind one after another 

 straight to their goal (or their death in the 

 entomologist's net) is one of the amazing sights of 

 nature. 



The females of these 'sembling species are often 

 very heavy of body and little able to fly, and 

 some which have probably practised the art for 

 more ages than the others are entirely without 

 wings. Such is the little vapourer, whose cater- 

 pillars gnaw our trees in the heart of the towns. 

 Hatch out one of these ungainly females, and in 

 a short time you will have a little army of terribly 

 ardent males shivering their red wings on the 

 window-sill where you have put her. Again, in 

 the winter months we are astonished at seeing a 

 very fragile-looking moth flying in the bitter breeze 

 among timber or fruit trees. He is seeking his 

 wingless female that clings like a very fat grey 

 spider to the tree on which she lived as a cater- 

 pillar, on which she will die as a moth made happy 

 by destiny fulfilled in the shape of a few hundred 

 eggs, which will continue the work of annoying the 

 forester or fruit grower. 



Caterpillars ? They are everywhere ; on the 

 grass, in the trees and apparently in the air ; for as 

 we walk along we get smothered in their hanging 

 strands of silk, and covered with the trapeze 

 performers whose lines we have broken. On the 



