CUSPIDATES. 



215 



pink, with a large black spot on each side ; 

 the body has a white lateral stripe, ascend- 

 ing obliquely from each side of the head to 

 the apex of the hunip, then descending 

 obliquely to below the spiracle on the 

 eighth segment, then again ascending ellip- 

 tically, and terminating at the base 

 of the anal horns ; above this white 

 stripe the body is whitish, longitudinally 

 striated with purple-brown, the white pre- 

 dominating along the median line, the 

 purple-brown predominating in the vicinity 

 of the lateral white stripe ; below this 

 white stripe the body is yellow-green, with 

 the exception of a nearly round purple- 

 brown blotch, just above the clasper on the 

 eighth segment : this blotch, not always 

 present, is bordered above with white : the 

 legs are yellow-green, with a black ring at 

 the base, and black tips ; the eight ventral 

 claspers are green, the two horn-like anal 

 tubes whitish, with black scabrosities. It 

 feeds on several varieties of narrow-leaved 

 willow (Salix), is full-fed in July, when it 

 crawls down the stem of the willow to 

 within two, three, or four feet of the 

 ground, then gnaws out the bark, and spins 

 an extremely tough, gluey cocoon in the 

 excavation thus made ; in this gluey cocoon 

 it changes to a CHRYSALIS, and remains in 

 that state all the winter. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in May 

 and June, and is common in England, Scot- 

 land, and Ireland. (The scientific name is 

 Dicranura vinula.) 



Obs. 1. A correspondent of the Zoologist, 

 who seems to have enjoyed considerable 

 opportunities of rearing these caterpillars, 

 and of observing their manners in confine- 

 ment, has published the following particu- 

 lars in that journal : 



" Having reared a pretty considerable 

 number of the caterpillars of the Puss-moth 

 during the present season, I have ventured 

 to put upon record a few observations 

 respecting thoir habits. A good number of 

 them were reared from the egg. The 

 earliest eggs were found from the begin- 

 ning of June to the 14th September, and I 

 took young caterpillars as late as the middle 

 of August, some of which have not yet com- 

 pleted their growth, so that the life of the 



caterpillar extends from June to September. 

 The markings on the back, it is well 

 known, vary slightly in different indi- 

 viduals; I have yet to ascertain whether 

 these are distinctive of the sexes. Besides 

 this there is one variety, distinguishable 

 even from the egg, which is pink instead of 

 red. From these lighter eggs the cater- 

 pillars produced have, throughout their 

 earliest stages, a reddish tint in those parts 

 of the body where the other specimens are 

 black ; and after the last change of skin 

 they are lighter than the others, both in 

 the ground colour and the shadings. These 

 caterpillars were fed both on willow and 

 poplar, but the poplar seemed to be the 

 most congenial food, and the largest in 

 growth were fed exclusively upon it. They 

 were supplied with fresh leaves twice a day, 

 at 8 A.M. and 6 P.M., and really appeared to 

 manifest some dim consciousness of the 

 approach of feeding time, even when their 

 stock of food was not exhausted, although 

 they certainly did not display the restless 

 agitation which the accustomed hour pro- 

 vokes in the captive Carnivora. At each 

 successive change of skin the caterpillar 

 devours the cast-off garment, with the 

 exception of the head, which seems too 

 tough a morsel. The time occupied by 

 each change is usually four days, and the 

 caterpillar eats nothing for about half-a- 

 day after it is completed, saving the old 

 skin. These caterpillars are remarkably 

 pugnacious after they have changed their 

 skins for the last time, the approach of an 

 observer immediately occasioning the pro- 

 trusion of the tentacula or filamentous 

 horns. As they increase in size, they 

 become more pacific. These caterpillars 

 have, as most entomologists have observed, 

 the power of ejecting a fluid in defence 

 when annoyed or irritated. Old writers on 

 Natural History state that this fluid is 

 thrown from a rose-coloured aperture 

 behind the head. On the contrary, the 

 aperture is below the head, extending, 

 when the caterpillars are full-grown, trans- 

 versely about two lines, just beneath the 

 chin, if one might so call it. Rennie says 

 that this power of ejection is lost when the 

 caterpillars are removed from their parent 



