306 THE SCHOOL OF REAUMUR 



larva (between the jaws and the first pair of legs) ; 

 the conical protrusible papillae, and the pungent liquid 

 which is discharged. It has, he says, the taste of strong 

 vinegar, and causes acute pain when rubbed into a slight 

 wound ; it reddened blue paper (coloured, no doubt, with 

 litmus, which had been introduced by Duclos in 1680) 

 and the blue flowers of chicory. The liquid was stored 

 in a chamber with contractile walls. Bonnet believed 

 that it was used to soften the cocoon when the moth is 

 ready to come forth, a conjecture which has not been 

 confirmed. He found similar papillae in many other 

 Lepidopterous larvae, which he identifies as well as 

 he can. 



Lyonet"^ worked out more fully the modifications of 

 the pair of anal feet in caterpillars, showing that they 

 may disappear altogether, or as in the puss-moth larva, 

 be converted into protrusible tails. He remarks the 

 retractile head, the appearance of a face (a cat's face, he 

 thinks), the raising of the hinder part of the body from 

 its support, so that the tails may be brought over the 

 head, when the larva is threatened, and the brandish- 

 ing of the tails. A singular proof is given of the strength 

 of the jaws of this larva. One which was kept in a 

 lead-lined box bit ofi" pieces of lead, and made a hard 

 cocoon, partly composed of lead ; after this, Lyonet 

 says, he would not have been surprised if it had made a 

 cocoon of brick. Examination of a cocoon from which a 

 moth had issued showed that in one place the shell had 

 been softened and dissolved. His figures are life-like, 

 and exhibit the characteristic attitudes of the larva, as 

 well as the unmistakable face. 



Eoesel ^ tells us that after searching long and without 



'■Anat. de diff. Esp^ces d'lnaectes, p. 318, pi. xxxiv, figs. 1-15. 

 ^ Vol. I, Sammlung iv, No. 18. 



