REAUMUR 265 



undulations which puzzle or even alarm an enemy. It 

 can move backwards and forwards with great agility, and 

 often escapes at one of the open ends of the tube. It is 

 always prepared to let itself down by a silken thread ; 

 when all is quiet again it climbs back to its leaf, coiling 

 the thread against its breast, and, last of all, eating up 

 the coil.^ 



Whenever the tube proves too narrow for the growing 

 larva a new one of greater diameter is begun, and the 

 leaf-roller moves to a fresh leaf as soon as may be 

 requisite. The last tube of all, in which the change to 

 the chrysalis takes place, is lined with silk, and the 

 overlapping edge is secured by a continuous silken hem. 

 The pupal stage lasts about three weeks, and then the 

 moth emerges from one end of the tube. 



Some Peculiar Caterpillars^ 



Under the heading of caterpillars which take peculiar 

 attitudes or shapes, Reaumur describes the privet hawk- 

 moth, the puss-moth, the iron-prominent (Notodonta 

 dromedarius), the zigzag prominent (N. zic-zac), and the 

 hook-tip (Platypteryx lacertinaria). He notices the pro- 

 tective resemblance of the lappet moth, and tells us that 

 having shown this moth to several persons they all pro- 

 nounced it to be a bunch of dead leaves. In the same 

 memoir he describes the death's head moth in all its 

 stages. The people of Brittany, he tells us, consider 

 this moth a precursor of epidemic diseases. One ominous 

 feature is the appearance of a skull upon the thorax ; 

 another is the cry which it utters, a strong and shrill 

 note, resembling the squeak of a mouse, but more 

 plaintive. We do not know, says Reaumur, any insects 



^ Some additions have been made to this paragraph. 

 «VoI. II, M^m. vi. 



