460 Queries and Answers. 



much by an insect that is not easy to discover. Many suppose it to commit 

 its depredations in the night. I have often discovered it feeding at different 

 times in the day ; and I beg to enclose one of them that was caught feed- 

 ing at mid-day. I do not know the name of it, but would feel greatly obliged 

 to you for its name. It is not a small quantity that it eats ; and this you will 

 readily discover, by putting it under a good-sized glass along with a branch 

 of geranium. Should it arrive alive you will be able to see its manoeuvres, 

 which are very curious. When it has climbed up on a plant to a favourite 

 feeding place, it fixes itself firmly to the part with two very strong claws not 

 far from its head, with its body hanging down perpendicularly, in readiness 

 to drop on the earth at the approach of an enemy. On going near, or in the 

 least way touching the plant it is feeding on, it drops off instantaneously like 

 a log, and there it will lie nearly straight, and quite motionless ; and, by its 

 resembling an old bit of dead stick or root, and so much the colour of the 

 earth it often escapes detection. It is certainly a very curious insect to look 

 at through a microscope. — James Barnes. Bicton Gardens, May 23. 1843. 



[We sent the insect to Mr. Westwood, who returned the following obsei*- 

 vations on it.] 



The caterpillar you sent me from Mr. Barnes, which annoys him by feeding 

 on his geraniums, is that of one of our most interesting species of Geometridse, 

 the caterpillars of which are so well known under the name of loopers, from 

 their geometrical mode of progression, so well described by KoUar, in his ac- 

 count of the Geometra brumata (p. 213. of Miss Loudon's translation of 

 KoUar's Treatise of Insects injurious to Gardeners, Foresters, and Farmers, 

 London, Smith, 1840.). 



The insect in question is the caterpillar of the Geometra (Ourapteryx) sam- 

 bucaria, or swallow-tail moth, an insect not uncommon in gardens, but which 

 I am not aware has hitherto been noticed as attacking the geranium. As, 

 however, it feeds on many kinds of plants, it is not surprising that the strong 

 shoots of a geranium should suit its taste. It is remarkable, structurally, by 

 having two sharp points at the hind extremity of the body, just above the 

 two caudal feet, whereby it firmly attaches itself to the stems, and not by 

 those next the head, as Mr. Barnes notices. In its habits it does not differ 

 from the greater number of the species of the family to which it belongs. The 

 perfect insect is distinguished from all our native species by its pale brimstone- 

 coloured wings, and by the hind pair terminating in a pair of short tails (ana- 

 logous ? to the points at the extremity of the body of the caterpillar). Lyonnet 

 found some of these caterpillars in the autumn upon a sallow, on the leaves 

 of which they feed, fasting during the winter, and resuming their feeding in the 

 spring ; others were found on an apricot tree at the end of April, and they 

 assumed the chrysalis state about the middle of May. Some of them, however, 

 continued feeding till the middle of June, and it was not until the 8th of July 

 that the perfect moths were produced. They fly by twilight, and are very 

 easily distinguished by their large size (being larger than the small white 

 garden butterfly), and pale colour. Their flight is feeble, as the size of their 

 wings and slenderness of the veins clearly prove. 



Although the caterpillars certainly bear a great resemblance to a dried bit 

 of stick or dead twig, yet the practised eye will soon detect them, and I know 

 no more serviceable mode of destroying them than carefully to look over the 

 plants on which the gnawed leaves indicate their presence, and then to crush 

 them to death under toot. The perfect insects may be caught without diffi- 

 culty with a small gauze hand net. 



The insect is figured in all its states by Curtis {British Ent., pi. 508.) ; Do- 

 novan (^Brit. Bisects, 5. pi. 170.) ; Albin.,p]. 94.; and Wilkes, pi. 78.— J. O. 

 Westwood. Grove Road, Hammersmith, May 23. 1843. 



