158 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. V. 



horn of the caterpillar of some sphinx, it suddenly 

 turned its head, and vomited upon 

 his hand a quantity of green, vis- 

 cous, and foetid fluid, which infected 

 his hand for two days : many other 

 caterpillars do the same ; and some 

 spiders, when they are provoked to 

 bite, emit small drops of a clear fluid. 

 The larva of a Tenthredo, or saw- 

 fly (Pteronus Pini), upon being 

 touched, immediately raises the fore part of the body, 

 and emits from its mouth a drop of clear resin : these 

 larvae live in societies ; and, " what is very remarkable, 

 no sooner does a single individual of the group give 

 itself this motion, than all the rest as if they were 

 moved by a spring instinctively do the same. Thus 

 do these little animals fire a volley, as it were, at their 

 annoyers, the scent of which is, probably, sufficient to 

 discomfit any ichneumons, flies, or predacious beetles 

 that may be desirous of attacking them." * Several 

 beetles, particularly the larger Carabi, eject a liquor 

 from their anus : and the acid smell of many ants is 

 one of their most powerful means of self-defence. 

 Other insects, like those of the genus Meloe, or oil 

 beetle, exude a fluid from the joints, and the segments 

 of their body ; while that discharged by the common 

 ladybird stains the hand of 'a deep yellow. Some have 

 the power of throwing or squirting this liquor upon 

 their enemies : the larva of the great emperor moth 

 (Bombyx pavonia) does this, when the spines of the 

 body are touched ; but in that of the puss moth (Bom- 

 Ityx vinula), and several otrers, there is a peculiar 

 apparatus for this purpose. These caterpillars have a 

 cleft in the neck, between the head and the first pair of 

 legs ; from this issues, at the will of the animal, a 

 singular syringe, laterally bifid, the branches of which 

 are terminated like the rose of a watering-pot. By 

 means of this organ, when touched, it will syringe a 



Int. to Ent. vol. ii. p. 249. 



