590 



HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



On referring to the illustration, the reader will see that the 

 artist has represented a nest of the Processionary Moth, part of 

 which has been torn open so as to show the absence of partitions 

 in the interior. A number of the caterpillars are also shown, but 

 in the middle of the nest is one grub of very great size, being, in 

 fact, six or seven times as large as the caterpillars. This creature 

 has been introduced because it is generally to be found in the 

 nest of the Processionary Moth, and because it is one of the most 

 useful insects that a careful agriculturist can protect. 



Processionary Moth and Caloaoma. 



It is the larva? of a beautiful beetle, called scientifically Colo- 

 soma sycophanta, which is represented below in the act of ascend- 

 ing the tree. The beetle is a lovely blue-green, but the larva is 

 as unsightly a being as can well be conceived, its body being fat, 

 flattish, and scaly, and its color black. This creature feeds en- 

 tirely upon the various caterpillars and other larva?, even eating 

 those of the destructive sawflies. At the end of the tail are two 

 horny spines, and the head is furnished with a pair of curved, 

 sharp, and powerful jaws, by means of which it seizes its prey. 



Instinct teaches these grubs to find their prey, and it may easily 



