MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 287 



another moth, the species of which seems not to be ascer- 

 tained, is celebrated by De Geer for the wonderful 

 celerity of its motions. When touched it darts away 

 backwards as well as forwards, giving its body an un- 

 dulating motion with such force and rapidity, that it 

 seems to fly from side to side a . Cuvier observes, that the 

 grubs of some coleopterous and neuropterous insects, 

 which have only the six perfect legs, by means of them 

 lay hold of any surrounding object, and, fixing them- 

 selves to it, drag the rest of their body to that point ; 

 and that those of many Capricorn beetles and their af- 

 finities (but that of Callidium molaceum is an apode b ) 

 have these legs excessively minute and almost nothing ; 

 that they move in the sinuosities which they bore by the 

 assistance of their mandibles, with which they fix them- 

 selves, and also of several dorsal and ventral tubercles, 

 by which they are supported against the sides of their 

 cavity, and push themselves along, in the same manner 

 as a chimney-sweeper by the pressure of his knees, 

 elbows, shoulder-blades, and other prominent parts 

 pushes himself up a chimney . The larva of the ant- 

 lion (Myrmeleoti) with the exception of one species, 

 which moves in the common way always walks back- 

 wards, even when its legs are cut off. 



The jumpers amongst pedate larvae, as far as they are 

 known, are not very numerous, and will not detain you 

 long. When the caterpillar of Lithosia Quadra, a 

 moth not uncommon, would descend from one branch 

 or leap to another, it approaches to the edge of the leaf 

 on which it is stationed, bends its body together, and 



3 De Geer, i. 424. b Kirby in Linn. Trans, v. 258. 



c Anatom. Comp. i. 430. 



