OF HARTING. 413 



fluid in two distinct lateral jets, for the especial atten- 

 tion of its enemies. Its cocoon, which consists of par- 

 ticles of comminuted wood intimately mixed with a 

 gummy fluid secreted by the caterpillar, becomes so 

 hard and horny in drying, that to cut through its walls 

 with a sharp knife would be no easy task. The first 

 caterpillar of this species we ever saw was placed in 

 a school boy's common oaken desk, and the next 

 morning we found it necessary, before school hours, 

 to wrench up the lid of the desk, the caterpillar having 

 during the night spun its cocoon in one corner of it, 

 partly on the lid, partly in the angle formed by the 

 front and one side, so that the lid was firmly gummed 

 down in its place, yet the soft downy moth, when 

 ready to emerge, is provided with the means of liber- 

 ating itself from this more than ligneous cell without 

 the ruffling of a scale ! 



A still more curious looking caterpillar than that of 

 the Puss Moth, is the caterpillar of the Lobster Moth 

 (Stauropus Fagi\ and of this we have met with one 

 or two specimens in the season, several years in suc- 

 cession. All these we found in the Park under the 

 beech, the leaves of which are undoubtedly their food 

 in this locality, and we may here incidentally remark, 

 that very many species of caterpillars, which in the 

 experience of other entomologists are found on oak, 

 birch, alder, poplar, whitethorn and other plants, the 

 leaves of which are in all such instances their natural 

 food, we have found among the beech woods, which, 

 indeed, are the prevailing growth on the South Downs. 

 Instead of one hump on the back, like that of the 

 puss moth caterpillar, this one possesses two on several 

 of its segments, four of its legs are elongated like those 

 of a spider, and the two terminal segments, which when 

 the animal is not walking are borne erect, are spread 

 out as it were into a comparatively large mass, convex 

 above, flat underneath, which is armed with two horns. 

 The general colour of those we have seen was more or 



