THE PUSS MOTH. 53S 



the creature is small, and the house of no great weight, it is carried nearly upright ; 

 but when it attains size and consequent weight, it lies flat and is dragged along in that 

 attitude. The entrance of this curious habitation is so made that the sides can be 

 drawn together, and whenever the creature feels alarmed, it pulls its cords and so 

 secures itself from foes. 



In this domicile the transformations take place, and from its aperture the male insect 

 emerges when it has assumed its perfect form, and takes to flight. Bjjf the female 

 behaves in a very different manner. According to the ancient maxim, she stays at 

 home and takes care of her house, from which she never emerges, nor indeed can she 

 emerge, as she has no external vestige of wings, and looks more like a grub than a 

 moth ; the head, thorax, and abdomen being hardly distinguishable from each other. 

 Love and courtship with this insect are carried on quite in an Oriental fashion, pushed 

 to extremes ; for whereas the Oriental in many cases never sees the face of his veiled 

 bride until after the nuptial ceremony is completed, the House-builder never sees his 

 mate either before or after marriage, and so is obliged either to love blindly or not at 

 all. Perhaps, considering the peculiar ungainliness of his spouse, he is rather fortu- 

 nate than otherwise in the fate which forbids him to contemplate the charms that lie 

 hidden behind the dense curtain that shrouds the nuptial couch, and which, but 

 .for the mystery that surrounds them, might inspire any feeling rather than that of 

 affection. 



The grub-like female is seen lying on the ground, just below the flying figure of the 

 male insect. It will be noticed that, except for the feathered body, the creature looks 

 more like a larva than a perfect insect. Owing to the resemblance which these remark- 

 nable insects bear to the fasces which were borne by the lictors before Roman consuls, 

 one species has been termed the Lictor-moth. The Singhalese appropriately call them 

 by a name that signifies billets of firewood, and believe that the insects were once human 

 beings who stole firewood while on earth, and are forced to undergo an appropriate 

 punishment in the insect state. About five species of House-builder Moths are known. 



The LOBSTER-MOTH derives its name from the grotesque exterior of the caterpillar. 

 As may be seen by reference to the illustration, this larva is one of the oddest imagi- 

 able forms, hardly to be taken for a caterpillar by one who was not acquainted with it. 

 The apparently forced and strange attitude in which this caterpillar is represented is 

 that which it assumes when at rest. The second and third pair of legs are much elon- 

 gated. The moth itself displays no very notable points of structure except the raised 

 tufts on ihe disc of the fore wings. 



The second example of this family belongs to the typical genus of the first sub-family, 

 and is one of the Prominent-moths, so called on account of the prominent tufts on the 

 inner margin of the upper wings." Several species of this genus are found in England, 

 and that which is figured has only lately been discovered in this country. Its general 

 color is white. In most of these insects the larva is decorated with hairs or pro- 

 jections, and the structure of the perfect insect is so uncertain that systematic ento- 

 mologists have been and still are greatly troubled about their proper arrangement. 



The well-known TIGER-MOTH (Arctia cajd), with its red and brown coloring, is a 

 well-known example of this family, and its caterpillar is no less familiar under the name 

 of Wooly Bear. This is a very harmless creature, feeding almost wholly on the dead 

 nettle, but somes of its allies are terrible plagues to the agriculturist, or even to the 

 country at large, having been known to inflict serious damage to crops, and in some 

 parts of Germany even to strip whole forests of their foliage. 



One of these insects, called the VAPORER-MOTH (Orgyia antiqua}, is especially re- 

 markable for the strange contrast between the sexes, the male being a wide-winged 

 moth of the ordinary kind, and the female a fat grub-like creature with hardly a vestige 

 of wing, and scarcely stirring from the spot on which it is placed. The well-known PUSS- 

 MOTH (Centra rinula), so called because its markings bear some resemblance to those 

 of a tabby cat, belongs to this family. The caterpillar of this moth is a handsomely 

 colored creature, remarkable for the odd, sphinx-like attitude which it assumes when 

 at rest, the pink St. Andrew's cross which is drawn over the back, and the forked 



