CUSPIDATES. 



205 



on which they feed answers the same pur- 

 pose of concealment from their enemies. 



The colour of Cuspidate caterpillars 

 varies greatly in different species, but there 

 is a fashion or method both in the tone and 

 disposition of the ornamentation ; the pre- 

 vailing tint is a delicious apple-green, and 

 the d^tribution of colours, when these are 

 various in the same caterpillar, is generally 

 referable to two or three different types ; 

 the first of these is the division of the body 

 into two distinct areas, a dorsal area, which 

 is purple or pink or brown, and a ventral, 

 which is green ; the boundary line between 

 the two colours is straight in the Hook-tips 

 (figure 1), but in the Puss-moth (figure 6) 

 it ascends to the middle of the back about 

 the fifth segment, and then descends to the 

 pointed extremity. Another type is the 

 longitudinally striped (figure 10), and a 

 third has a series of oblique stripes on the 

 sides, generally six or seven in number 

 (figure 14) ; each of these oblique stripes 

 commences near the spiracles, and is con- 

 tinued upwards and forwards in direct 

 contrast to the striping of the Sphingif orms, 

 which, commencing in the same part of the 

 caterpillar, is always directed upwards and 

 backwards, the last stripe terminating in 

 the caudal horn. 



The mode of pupation is various ; some 

 of the Cuspidates, as the Puss-moth, form 

 very tough cocoons, made of glue, and 

 sparingly mixed with sawdust of their own 

 fabrication. These cocoons are attached so 

 closely to the bark of trees, and are so much 

 of the same colour, that it is impossible for 

 the uneducated eye to detect them ; and 

 thus they escape alike the notice of men, 

 mice, and birds, although generally con- 

 structed in the most exposed places. Some- 

 times these cocoons form a little lump or 

 excrescence on the smooth trunk, but at 

 other times the caterpillar selects a crack in 

 the bark, and filling it up exactly to the 

 level utterly defies the skill of the most ex- 

 pert searcher. It may here be observed 

 that the glue of which these cocoons is 

 made is nothing more than condensed or 

 coagulated silk, or reversing the order, silk 

 is nothing more than spun glue, and 

 whether the substance be produced in the 



form of glue or silk, it has a remarkable 

 power of resisting wet, which seems to have 

 no effect on it whatever. At the period of 

 emergence the moth, by some unknown 

 process, has the power of softening this 

 material and entirely overcoming its tena- 

 city ; and whether in the form of glue or 

 silk, the substance yields at once to the 

 emerging moth, which escapes through 

 an aperture produced by some mechanical 

 or chemical means that we have not yet 

 discovered. 



Other species of Cuspidates undergo their 

 metamorphosis in a slight web which the 

 caterpillars spin between the leaves of the 

 tree on which they feed ; these united leaves 

 falling during the autumn or winter, are 

 converted into a kind of parachute, in which 

 the enclosed chrysalids are floated gently 

 and safely to the ground, there to remain 

 among fallen foliage until the advent of 

 spring calls them into their winged exist- 

 ence. Other species, again, turn to chrys- 

 alids on the surface of the earth without 

 even the pretence of a cocoon ; and two or 

 more have been ascertained to bury them- 

 selves deeply in the earth, provided, in all 

 probability, with some mechanical contriv- 

 ance for ascending through the superim- 

 posed earth when the period for the final 

 change has arrived. 



The moths themselves have generally 

 small and short palpi, and very short and 

 insignificant trunks, or, as these are more 

 properly called, maxillas. I allude, of course, 

 to the spiral tube which we find wound up 

 in a ring, like the spring of a watch, be- 

 neath the heads of butterflies and moths. 

 This beautiful apparatus, so well adapted 

 for sucking the honey, or nectar, from 

 flowers, although so like a tongue, is not 

 really one, but is composed of two long 

 flexible jaws. 



Following, as I have done throughout, 

 the arrangement of my friend Mr. Double- 

 day, which is printed for cutting out and 

 placing in slips below the insects themselves 

 when arranged in cabinets,* I do not 

 consider myself at liberty to make any 



* Sj nonyinic L^t of British Butterflies and Moths. 

 By Henry Doubleday. Price One Shilling and Six- 

 pence. Sold by all London Booksellers. 



