14 ON ENTOMOLOGY. 



spotted with black. Caterpillar gregarious, black spotted with white ; 

 the feet rust coloured ; feeds on the nettle. Chrysalis green, gold 

 spotted. Common in the south of England, and found also in Yorkshire 

 and Scotland. 



The TORTOISESHELL (Vanessa Urtica) appears in spring, the end of June, 

 and beginning of September, wings above deep orange, base black, hin- 

 der margin black, with a series of blue crescents, Caterpillar dusky, head 

 black, when young it is gregarious. Common throughout the kingdom. 



The PROCESSION MOTH (Cnethocampa Processionea) . The Caterpillar of 

 this Moth feeds on the oak a brood dividing when nearly hatched into 

 one or more parties of several hundred individuals, which afterwards 

 unite in constructing a common nest, nearly two feet long and from four 

 to six inches in diameter. As it is not divided like that of the brown tails 

 into chambers, but consists of one large hall, it is not necessary that 

 there should be more openings, than one ; and accordingly when an in- 

 dividual goes out and carpets a path, the whole colony instinctively 

 follow in the same track, though from the immense population, they are 

 often compelled to march in parallel files from two to six deep. The 

 procession is always headed by a single Caterpillar, sometimes the 

 leader is immediately followed by one or two in single file, and some- 

 times by two abreast. 



The GOAT MOTH (Cossus Ligniperda.) The Caterpillar of this Moth, 

 which abound in Kent t and many other parts of the Island, feeds on the 

 wood of willows, oaks, poplars, and other trees, in which it eats ex- 

 tensive galleries ; but it is not contented with the protection afforded 

 by these galleries during the colder months of winter, before the arrival 

 of which, it scoops out a hollow in the tree, if it does not find one 

 ready prepared, sufficiently large to contain its body in a bent or some- 

 what coiled up position. Ilennie thus speaks of it : " On sawing off a 

 portion of an old poplar in the winter of 1827, we found such a cell 

 with a Caterpillar coiled up in it. It had not, however, been contented 

 with the bare walls of the retreat, which it had hewn out of the 

 tree, for it had lined it with a fabric as thick as coarse broad 

 cloth and equally warm, composed of the raspings of the wood scraped 

 out of the cell, united with the strong silk which every species of 

 Caterpillar can spin. In this snug retreat our Caterpillar, if it had not 

 been disturbed, would have spent the winter without eating ; but upon 

 being removed into a warm room and placed under a glass, along with 

 some pieces of wood which it might eat if so inclined, it was roused 

 for a time from its dormant state, and began to move about. It was not 

 long, however, in constructing a new cell for itself, no less ingenious 

 than that of the former. It either would not gnaw into the fir plank, 

 where it was now placed with a glass above it, or it did not choose to 

 do so, for it left it untouched and made it the basis of the edifice it 

 began to construct ; it formed, in fact, a covering for itself, precisely like 

 the one from which \ve hud dislodged it, composed of raspings cf wood 



