402 



LEPIDOPTERA 



CHAP. 



ill both hemispheres, but these Insects do not occur in insular 

 faunas. In Britain we have two genera, Heterogenea and Apoda 

 (better known as Limacodes ■^), each with a single species. 



The early stages of tliese Insects are of great interest. The 

 eggs, so far as known, are peculiar flat oval scales, of irregular 

 outline and transparent ; we have figured an example in Vol. V. 

 Fig. 83. The eggs of the same moth are said to vary much 

 in size, though the larvae that emerge from them differ little 



from one another in this respect. The 

 latter are peculiar, inasmuch as they 

 have no abdominal feet, and the 

 thoracic legs are but small ; hence the 

 caterpillars move in an imperceptible 

 gliding manner that has suggested for 

 some of them the name of slug-worms. 

 The metamorphoses of a few are 

 known. They may be arranged in 

 two groups ; one in which the larva 

 is spinose or armed with a series of 

 projections and appendages persisting 

 throughout life ; while in the members 

 of the second group the spines have 

 only a temporary existence. At the 

 moment the young larva of Apoda 

 testudo emerges from the egg it 



^"'i:^\:^'"^l'uL:r':i^: 1^^« "« conspicuous spines or processes, 

 of larva ; B, C, D, a spine in and is ail extremely soft, colourless 

 ^::^:;^:^\Mt:^Z:) <^^«^ture,^ but it almost immediately 

 displays a remarkable system of com- 

 plex spines. These really exist in the larva when it is 

 hatched, and are thrust out from pits, as explained by 

 Dr. Chapman. In the succeeding stages, the spines become 

 modified in form, and the colour of the body and the nature of 



' It is much to lie regretted that, as in so many other Lepidoptera, no satis- 

 factory agreement as to names has been attained ; our British A. testudo is 

 variously styled Limacodes testudo (by Chapman and most naturalists), Jpoda 

 limacodes (by Meyrick), or Apoda avellana (Kirby, Catalogue of Moths). The 

 family is called either Limacodidae, Apodidae, Cochliopodidae, or Heterogeneidae. 



' See Chapman, Tr. ent. Soc. Loiulon, 1894, p. 345, Plate A''II., for our British 

 species ; for North American forms, Dyar, Life-histories of the New York Slug-eater- 

 pillars (in progress, with numerous plates), J. New York ent. Soe. iii. etc., 1895. 



