COLOURS AND FORMS OF INSECTS. 151 



If we leave colouring out of consideration, and 

 look merely at the forms of caterpillars, we think it 

 must be apparent to the most indifferent observer, 

 that, though they have often a rather ungainly, 

 repulsive, and sometimes a formidable aspect, yet 

 this renders them in numerous instances very conspi- 

 cuous. The forms, also, we may remark, which ap- 

 pear disagreeable or threatening to us, may not seem 

 so to birds and ichneumons which make them their 

 prey. One of the most singular of these forms of 

 caterpillars occurs in that of the pebble moth (JVbfo- 

 donta Ziczac, STEPHENS),* the form being such that 

 it is not easy for one unacquainted with it to tell which 

 is the head and which the tail. The puss ( Cerura 

 Vinula) is another whose form and attitudes cannot 

 fail to attract the notice of the most indifferent obser- 

 ver. Dr Shaw, in his Zoological Lectures, quotes 

 from a country newspaper a most ludicrous account of 

 this ' monster,' as it is there called, having a head 

 like a lion, jaws like a shark, a horn like a unicorn, 

 and two tremendous stings in its tail. The gross ex- 

 aggeration of this description will be obvious from the 

 following accurate figures; yet how formidable soever 

 this caterpillar may appear to us (even Rosel, the 

 entomologist, was afraid of it at first), we know that 

 no one is more readily pounced upon by at least two 

 species of ichneumons, which eem,: therefore, not to 

 be afraid to deposit their eggs in its body;f and it is 

 no doubt often made prey of by birds, at least in its 

 young state; for when full grown, being about as 

 thick as a man's thumb, it may prove rather too 

 bulky a morsel. J 



Our readers may like to see, by way of contrast 

 to the exaggerated account quoted by Shaw, the 

 excellent description of the puss caterpillar given 



* Figured in Insect Architecture, p. 172. 



f See ibid, pp. 195, and 325-6. J J. R. 



