THE BURNET MOTH. 169 



made by the natives of tropical America, and bearing a consider- 

 able resemblance to them in general form, as well as in the loose 

 and open meshes. So large, indeed, are the meshes made, that 

 the inclosed insect can be seen through the network, from the 

 time that the old wrinkled skin is cast off and pushed away in 

 a heap by the white and shining chrysalis, to the time when the 

 chrysalis shell is in its turn shattered, and the perfect moth 

 creeps slowly into the air, all dull, and sodden, and bewildered, 

 with its undeveloped wings looking like four motded split peas 

 rather than the beautiful members which they soon become, 

 when the air has passed into their vessels, and their multitu- 

 dinous folds have been shaken out. 



Among the pensile insects may be reckoned the beautiful 

 Burnet Moth {Anthrocera filipendtdm)^ an insect which has 

 already been mentioned, while treating of the pensile 

 hymenoptera. 



This insect, which is well known for its splendid colours of 

 deep velvet green, and blazing scarlet, is also notable for the 

 shape of its antennae, which are so swollen towards the tips as 

 to induce many persons to reckon the insect as a butterfly rather 

 than a moth. 



The shape of the cocoon of the Burnet Moth is not unlike 

 that of the tiger moth, but its material and position are very 

 different. The cocoon of the tiger moth is slung horizontally, 

 in hammock fashion, while that of the Burnet is set perpen- 

 dicularly, and fastened to the upper part of a grass stem, one side 

 being firmly pressed against it. The substance of the cocoon 

 is quite opaque, greyish, rather stout, very tough, and having 

 the silken threads, of which it is chiefly made, so conspicuous, 

 that many persons take the cocoon to be the work of a spider. 



Sometimes in a field, or even in a limited portion of a field, 

 these cocoons are so numerous that at a little distance they 

 look almost as if they were the seeds of the plant rather than 

 the cocoons of an insect. In such cases the moths themselves 

 may generally be found near the cocoons, sometimes being on 

 the ground and sometimes on the wing. 



