124 Poisonous Caterpillars. 



POISONOUS CATERPILLARS. 



BY H. NOEL HUMPHREYS. 



The caterpillars of several species of Moths, and also of Butter- 

 flies are provided with means of defence which are more or less ve- 

 nomous; but we seldom hear of fatal consequences arising from 

 their venom, though many of the poisonous species are natives 

 of Europe. This season, however, a boy, injured by the noxious 

 hairs of the procession caterpillar subsequently died; and several 

 persons in Belgium, have suffered serious illness in consequence 

 of eating cherries gathered from trees infested by a caterpillar, 

 the name of which is not given in the notice which furnished 

 me with the information. Several kinds of our native cater- 

 pillars have the defensive power of emitting a fluid which pro- 

 duces considerable irritation of the skin ; and in others, the 

 hairs, when touched, produce an effect somewhat analogous to 

 the sting of the nettle. Some children in my neighbourhood, 

 attracted by the gay colours of the little caterpillar of the 

 Gold-tailed Moth, endeavoured to rear a brood of them, in 

 order to obtain fine specimens of the elegant White Moth. 

 During the whole time (some weeks) that they were so en- 

 gaged, the backs of their hands, and their faces also, were 

 covered with red patches, which fortunately gave but little 

 pain till rubbed or otherwise irritated. When the caterpillars 

 went into the chrysalis stage, the red patches on the hands and 

 faces of the young entomologists disappeared ; but on obtaining- 

 some more caterpillars of the same kind, they again made their 

 appearance. An experienced naturalist informs me that he 

 once suffered a very sharp feverish attack while rearing a brood 

 of these caterpillars ; that the skin of the hands and face be- 

 came painfully inflamed ; that he suffered intense thirst, and 

 was confined to his room for several days. The caterpillar of 

 our largest and handsomest native butterfly, Papilio Machaon, 

 popularly known as the Great Swallow-tail, is furnished with a 

 fork-like tentacle on the neck, of a red colour, from which it is 

 enabled to emit a strongly- scented fluid which is said to drive 

 off its most dangerous enemies, the ichneumon flies ; and when 

 coming in contact with the human skin it produces an unpleasant 

 though slight irritation. The small larva of Dicranura Vinula has 

 a similar excrescence near the head, both points of which are 

 furnished with many perforations, like the rose of a watering- 

 pan, through which it can eject to some considerable distance a 

 tiny shower of acrid fluid, which, if it fall in the eye, produces 

 acute pain, and the effects are sometimes permanently inju- 

 rious. 



