360 Animal Life 
About July 21st the larve are an inch long—the fore-part beginning to assume 
the “trunk”-like form from which the moth takes its name. They have a voracious 
appetite, and when bedstraw is difficult to obtain the common willow herb is very 
acceptable to their palate. During the last week in July most of my larvee were up 
for their final change of skin, which hitherto had been of a green colour. After 
a week’s fast, resting on the main stem, muscular waves begin to surge through the 
entire length, starting at the tail, rollmg along each segment, until the head is reached, 
which protrudes to almost bursting pomt; but it is not until these efforts have been 
repeated a number of times that they produce the desired effect, and the skin splits 
on the back of the head, which also splits, and, after more muscular surgings, is forced 
off, revealing a brand new covering of a delicate green. The skin on the second 
segment slowly splits, and so on to the third and fourth; the “new body” now begins 
to protrude, and the first pair of pro-legs are withdrawn from their old coverings. Very 
soft and delicate they are at first, but as they become exposed to the air they quickly 
assume darker colours, and the sharp “claws” harden, so enabling the larva to set 
them down and gently bring them into use. When once the feet are free and set 
down, then the old skin begins mysteriously to 
recede, shrivelling up into white folds as it is 
“sloughed” off towards the tail. Fig. 1 is a 
photograph of the living caterpillar in the very 
act of changing its skin; the old one is shown in 
a shrivelled white mass about half-way down the 
body of the larva—the head-skin not quite free. 
Very sedately the larva walks forward owt of 
its old skin, which, together with that of the 
caudal horn, passes over the new bent-down one, 
(Fig. 2.) Until just ten minutes after the time 
when the old skin first split, the larva has 
walked clean out, and now proceeds to use its 
swollen anal claspers as a hammer upon the 
old skin. 
Three hours after, the elephant larva was 
satisfying its hunger after its long fast by eating 
up its cast-off clothes! This is the custom 
among all smooth-skinned larvee. As soon as 
cae their fast has been broken, time is allowed for 
digestion, and then their appetite can scarcely be satisfied, and in a very short time a 
dozen pink elephants will make “bare poles” of as many sprays of willow herb. The 
crunch of their jaws can be heard most distinctly; and unless the food-plant be grown 
upon the premises, it is often a difficult matter to keep them supplied with fresh food, 
which is most essential to their welfare. 
By August 4th most of the larvae were full-grown and of great size—over three inches 
long and five-eights of an inch im diameter; the colour a dull brown, almost black, 
minutely checkered, like a chessboard, from the fifth segment down to the side of the 
head, which, when protruded, gives the larva a decided elephant’s-trunk-like appearance. 
At the sides of the fifth and sixth segments is a large, velvety, black eye-lke 
marking with a violet crescent on the upper side; and when suddenly disturbed, the 
larva draws in its head and first three segments until they are level with the fifth, 
and the eye-like markings are then at the front margin, giving the larva a very startling 
appearance, which no doubt acts as a warning to birds and protection to the larve. 
When full fed the larvee become very restless; and though they delight to feed in the 
