412 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



Small Engrailed (Tephrosia crepuscularid) ; the En- 

 grailed (Tephrosia biundularid) ; the Grass Emerald 

 (Pseudoterpna cytisaria)\, the Large Emerald (Geometra 

 Papilionaria), a very beautiful insect ; the Small 

 Emerald (lodis vernarid) ; the Lace Border (Acidalia 

 ornatd) ; the Latticed Moth (Strenia clatkratd) ; the 

 Common Heath (Fidonia atomarid)-; the well known 

 Currant Moth (Abraxas grossulariatd) ; the Dark 

 Umber (Scotosia rhamnatd) ; and many other species 

 of the same group. 



Our next division of moths is the most remarkable 

 of all for the extraordinary forms of its caterpillars, 

 and we have been fortunate in meeting with some of* 

 the rarest of these and rearing them with success. 

 Those of The Barred Hooktip (Platypteryx unguiculd] 

 we have taken abundantly, after the equinoctial gales 

 in autumn, on the trunks of the beech, and, although 

 they had necessarily been blown violently from their 

 food leaves at a great height from the ground, very 

 few of them failed to reach their final stage of develop- 

 ment. The caterpillar of the fine Puss Moth (Dicranura 

 vinula} we have frequently met with in the three vil- 

 lages, and fed on the aspen, as well as the elm and the 

 poplar. In a state of repose, with its two extremities 

 elevated, this is a curious looking object, rendered 

 still more so by the angular hump on its back and 

 the two horns on its caudal segment. These horns 

 are, in fact, tubes, from each of which the caterpillar, 

 when irritated, is capable of briskly protruding a slen- 

 der filament of a pinkish colour, which it can direct to 

 any part of its dorsal surface, and thus (according to 

 some entomologists) sometimes " whip away " the 

 Ichneumon (Ophion luteum\ which is parasitic on this 

 species, before it has had time to fix its egg on the 

 skin. It is also provided with another remarkable 

 defensive apparatus, this consists of a double syringe, 

 issuing at the will of the animal from an aperture 

 underneath the head, from which it ejects an acrid 



