204 Timehni. 
which may be regarded as the standard number. The portion of their body 
anterior to the abdominal feet is very flexible. Fixing themselves to a plant 
stem or other object by their abdominal feet and anal claspers they reach 
forward to their utmost limit and lay hold with theiranterior or thoracic feet. 
Letting go with their abdominal feet and claspers, they draw up the posterior 
part of their body forming thus a regular loop. They then grasp anew the 
stem with their abdominal feet and claspers and reach forward again in 
order to make another loop. By this peculiar means of locomotion they can 
advance pretty rapidly, especially when excited. The looping habit is not 
confined to the Geometers, as it is possessed also by many Noctuid cater- 
pillars. Noctuid loopers, like the Geometers, lack the full number of abdomi- 
nel feet. Instead of having four pairs, they have only two pairs, those on 
the eighth and ninth segments, those on the sixth and seventh segments 
being either absent, or so undeveloped as to be functionless or virtually so. 
One of the best examples of a Noctuid looper is the caterpillar of Remigia 
repanda, out commonest grass-moth. The caterpillars, which, during last 
month (June), after the advent of the midyear rains, appeared all along the 
coast in millions, feeding upon practically every one of our common grasses, 
including even tice and the sugar-cane, were principally those of this moth. 
Those caterpillars that have four pairs of fully developed abdominal feet 
progress by a series of more or less rapid undulatory forward movements of 
the whole body. 
It is interesting to note the different ways in which different caterpillars 
respond to an exciting stimulus. Alarm a Papilio caterpillar, that of Papilio 
anchisiades, say, and it shoots upwaids from the segment behind the head 
a forked process. It is really astonishing, if one does not expect it to see some- 
thing like a snake’s tongue suddenly dart into view. It perhaps does this to 
alarm its enemies. 'The action is accompanied by the lavish diffusion of an 
odour much resembling that of the cockroach, or the fruit popularly known as 
the stinking toe. 
The caterpillar of Argeus labruseaw, the sphinx vine-moth, rears itself up, 
and withdraws its thoracic segments into the following one, which is then 
expanded to show two dark brown spots, one on each side, as eyes. In this 
attitude it looks for all the world like a miniature cobra about to deal a deadly 
thrust. 
Pyralid caterpillars when alarmed drop to the earth from their leafy taber- 
nacle or hang suspended by a thread, up which they climb to their abode when 
all danger is over. So easily alarmed are they that in collecting them one 
has to be very careful not to excite them to any great extent, or they 
may drop to the vegetation below, where it is generally a hopeless task looking 
for them. If allowed to fall on the bare earth or on a table, they thump and 
wriggle very much like a fish out of water, and then run off at a rapid pace. 
Pyralid caterpillars are much sought after by many wasps as food for their 
larvee, and it is probable that their excitable nature is due to this fact more 
than to any other. The most excitable are those which are the most hunted, 
