LEPIDOPTEKA. 157 



relate this operation himself, which must without doubt be pain- 

 ful to the poor animal : * 



" Its two teeth are the pincers the caterpillar uses in seizing 

 a portion of one or other of the tufts of hair ; and when it 

 has seized it, it tears it out without much difficulty. It at once 

 places this against the tissue it has already commenced, in which 

 it entangles it at first simply by pressure ; it fixes it then 

 more securely by spinning over it. It does not leave off tearing 

 out its hairs till it has entirely stripped them off. When the 

 caterpillar has taken between its teeth and torn out a whole 

 tuft of hair, the head carries it and deposits it on some part of 

 the lower surface of the cocoon ; but it does not leave the hairs 

 of such a large parcel together. The next moment one sees 

 its head moving about very quickly ; then taking a portion of 



Fig. 114. -Larva of Acronycta aceris. Fig. 115,-Larva of Acronycta aceris taken 



niit rif its r>nr>nrm. 



the hairs from the little heap, it distributes them about on the 

 neighbouring parts of the cocoon. If one opens one of these 

 shells before the caterpillar has become a chrysalis, the larva, 

 which is quite naked, and which was only known by its hair, can 

 be no longer recognised." 



The caterpillar of the Tiger Moth or Woolly Bear, called by 

 Reaumur Marte or Herisson (Chelonia caja, Fig. 116), is 

 covered with long inclined hairs. This caterpillar also makes 

 use of its hairs for strengthening the tissue of its cocoon ; but 

 whether it feels the pain more acutely than the first, or whether 

 it has much more to suffer, it does not tear out its hairs. It adopts 

 another system ; it cuts them. The caterpillar is then enveloped 



