306 THE SCHOOL OF R:^AUMUR 



larva (between the jaws and the first pair of legs) ; 

 the conical protrusible papillae, and the pungent liquid 

 which is discharged. It has, he says, the taste of strong  

 vinegar, and causes acute pain when rubbed into a slight 

 wound ; it reddened blue paper (coloured, no doubt, with 

 litmus, which had been introduced by Duclos in 1680) 

 and the blue flowers of chicory. The liquid was stored 

 in a chamber with contractile walls. Bonnet believed 

 that it was used to soften the cocoon when the moth is 

 ready to come forth, a conjecture which has not been 

 confirmed. He found similar papillae in many other 

 Lepidopterous larvae, which he identifies as well as 

 he can. 



Lyonet^ worked out more fully the modifications of 

 the pair of anal feet in caterpillars, showing that they 

 may disappear altogether, or as in the puss-moth larva, 

 be converted into protrusible tails. He remarks the 

 retractile head, the appearance of a face (a cat's face, he 

 thinks), the raising of the hinder part of the body from 

 its support, so that the tails may be brought over the - 

 head, when the larva is threatened, and the brandish- jH 

 ing of the tails. A singular proof is given of the strength 

 of the jaws of this larva. One which was kept in a 

 lead-lined box bit off" pieces of lead, and made a hard 

 cocoon, partly composed of lead ; after this, Lyonet 

 says, he would not have been surprised if it had made a fl 

 cocoon of brick. Examination of a cocoon from which a 

 moth had issued showed that in one place the shell had 

 been softened and dissolved. His figures are life-like, 

 and exhibit the characteristic attitudes of the larva, as 

 well as the unmistakable face. 



Koesel ^ tells us that after searching long and without 



^ Anat. de diff, Especes d'Insectes, p. 318, pi. xxxiv, figs. 1-15. 

 * Vol. I, Sammlung iv, No. 18. 



