CUSPIDATES. 



205 



cat 



II 



they feed answers the same purpose of 

 cealment from their enemies. 



The colour of Cuspidate caterpillars varies 

 greatly in different species, but there is a 

 fashion or method both in the tone and dis- 



ition of the ornamentation ; the prevailing 

 t is a delicious apple-green, and the distri- 



tion of colours, when these are various in the 



me caterpillar, is generally referrablc to two 

 or three different types ; the first of these is 

 the division of the body into two distinct 

 areas, a dorsal area, which is purple or. pink or 

 brown, and a ventral, which is green ; the 

 boundary line between the two colours is 

 straight in the Hook-tips (figure 1), but in 

 the Puss-moth (figure 6) it ascends to the 

 middle of the back about the fifth segment, 

 and then descends to the pointed extremity. 

 Another type is the longitudinally striped 

 (figure 10), and a third has a series of oblique 

 stripes on the sides, generally six or seven in 

 number (figure 14); each of these oblique 

 stripes commences near the spiracles, and is 

 continued upwards and forwards in direct con- 

 trast to the striping of the Sphingiforms, 

 which, commencing in the same part of the 

 caterpillar, is always directed upwards and 



ckwards, the last stripe terminating in the 



udal horn. 



The mode of pupation is various ; some of 



e Cuspidates, as the Puss-moth, form very 

 tough cocoons, made of glue, and sparingly 

 mixed with sawdust of their own fabrication. 

 These cocoons are attached so closely to the 

 bark of trees, and are so much of the same 

 colour, that it is impossible for the uneducated 

 eye to detect them ; and thus they escape alike 

 the notice of men, mice, and birds, although 

 generally constructed in the most exposed 

 places. Sometimes these cocoons form a little 

 lump or excrescence on the smooth trunk, but 

 at other times the caterpillar selects a crack in 

 the bark, and filling it up exactly to the level, 

 utterly defies the skill of the most expert 

 searcher. It may here be observed that the 

 glue of which these cocoons is made is nothing 

 more than condensed or coagulated silk, or 

 reversing the order, silk is nothing more than 

 spun glue, and whether the substance be pro- 



duced in the form of glue or silk, it has a 

 remarkable power of resisting wet, which 

 seems to have no effect on it whatever. At 

 the period of emergence the moth, by some 

 unknown process, has the power of softening 

 this material and entirely overcoming its tena- 

 city ; and whether in the form of glue or silk, 

 the substance yields at once to the emerging 

 moth, which escapes through an aperture pro- 

 duced by some mechanical or chemical means 

 that we have not yet discovered. 



Other species of Cuspidates undergo their 

 metamorphosis in a slight web which the 

 caterpillars spin between the leaves of tbe 

 tree on which they feed ; these united leaves 

 falling during the autumn or winter, are con- 

 verted into a kind of parachute, in which the 

 enclosed chrysalids are floated gently and safely 

 to the ground, there to remain among fallen 

 foliage until the advent of spring calls them 

 into their winged existence. Other species, 

 again, turn to chrysalids on the surface of 

 the earth without even the pretence of a 

 cocoon; and two or more have been ascer- 

 tained to bury themselves deeply in the earth, 

 provided, in all probability, with some mecha- 

 nical contrivance for ascending through the 

 superimposed earth when the period for the 

 final change has arrived. 



The moths themselves have generally small 

 and short palpi, and very short and insignificant 

 trunks, or, as these are more properly called, 

 maxilla. I allude, of course, to the spiral tube 

 which we find wound up in a ring, like the 

 spring of a watch, beneath the heads of butter- 

 flies and moths. This beautiful apparatus, so 

 well adapted for sucking the honey, or nectar, 

 from flowers, although so like a tongue, is 

 not really one, but is composed of two long 

 flexible jaws. 



Following, as I have done throughout, the 

 arrangement of my friend, Mr. Doubleday, 

 which is printed for cutting out and placing 

 in slips below the insects themselves when 

 arranged in cabinets,* I do not consider 

 myself at liberty to make any alterations 



* Synonymic Liat of British Butterflies and Moths. 

 By Henry Doubleday. Price One Shilling and Six- 

 pence. Sold by all London Booksellers. 



