224 OUR INSECT FRIENDS AND FOES 



it lies kicking helplessly on its back, while its foe 

 disembowels it. 



A near relation of the Carabus auratus is 

 the Calosoma Beetle (Calosoma sycophanta), one 

 of the handsomest European beetles. Its large 

 body is a beautiful deep violet colour, and its 

 wing-cases, which are striated and pitted, are a 

 wonderful green and gold tint. It is an ex- 

 tremely active insect, frequenting the trunks of 

 oak trees in search of the caterpillars upon which 

 it preys. It is the hereditary foe of the curious 

 Processionary Moth (Bombyx processioned), whose 

 larvae cause such serious damage to the foliage 

 of the oak trees in the forests of France. 

 During August and September the small grey- 

 winged moths appear in the woods, and the 

 females soon begin to deposit their eggs in 

 masses on the trunks and branches of the oak 

 trees, covering the masses of eggs with hairs 

 from their body. In the following spring, the 

 caterpillars hatch out and collect in families 

 which contain hundreds of members. These 

 social larvae form an irregular common web 

 beneath which to rest and shelter quietly during 

 the daytime, only leaving it in the evening when 

 they crawl over the foliage and voraciously 

 devour it. The meal over, they may return to 

 the old web, or form a new one should their 

 search for food have taken them too far from the 

 old home. These nests, having to afford shelter 

 for several hundred members, are often of con- 

 siderable size, and consist of several layers of 

 web closely woven together. It is from their 

 curious habit of marching forth from the nest 



