316 ' APPENDIX BT THE 



"A large, smooth, unsightly crawler, of a livid red and 

 salmon color, black-headed, and black-clawed, this cater- 

 pillar swallows the chippings and dust made in his 

 tunneling progress through the wood. Throughout the 

 summer he thus eats his way, but in autumn prepares 

 himself a broader chamber, which he hangs with a fabric 

 as thick as broadcloth, and equally warm, composed of 

 the raspings of wood scooped out of his cell, and united 

 with the strong silk, which every species of caterpillar 

 can spin." For three or four years he thus continues 

 in the tree chosen by the parent moth for his abode, and 

 then " with bulky body, and dusky wings, from three to 

 four inches in expansion, he is wont, about July, to emerge 

 from his wooden cell." Acheta Domestica. 



The muscular strength, very remarkable in the insect 

 tribes, is surprisingly great in the goat moth. The num- 

 ber of muscles in the human body is reckoned at 529 ; but 

 in this caterpillar, not so large as a man's finger, there are 

 4061 ! Mr. Rennie relates that he once put a goat moth 

 caterpillar under a glass bell weighing nearly half a 

 pound, " yet it raised it up with the utmost ease." A book 

 weighing four pounds was then placed over the bell, and 

 Btill the creature made good his escape by raising both 

 book and glass ! The name of this insect is derived from 

 its peculiar odor. It is not found in America, although 

 we have several moths partially resembling it, and among 

 others, " Cossus Macmurtri." 



Humming-bird Hawk-moth. The reader is probably 

 aware that the name of sphinx was given to one of the 

 three divisions of insects of the butterfly tribe, from the 

 singular habit of their caterpillars, which raise the upper 

 portions of their bodies in an erect position, and continue 

 thus motionless for hours at a time, resembling, as Lin- 

 naeus fancied, the statues of the Egyptian Sphinx. These 



