Poisonous Caterpillars. 127 



under the fixed gaze of certain snakes ; or, like the antelope, 

 who remains motionless when the roar of the lion has announced 

 his fatal spring.* It need scarcely be added that the cater- 

 pillars that prey upon the processionists do not appear to sus- 

 tain the slightest inconvenience from the poisonous hairs. But 

 I must return to the immediate history of the procession cater- 

 pillar himself: he enters the chrysalis state about the middle of 

 July, and the moth appears in 

 August, when it lives but a few 

 days, the female dying imme- 

 diately after the deposition of 

 her eggs. The hairs on the 

 body of the perfect insect or 

 moth are nearly as venomous 

 as those of the caterpillar. The 

 colour of the moth is gray, 

 with brown transverse stripes, which are sometimes indistinct. 

 There is another species of this genus, Cnethocampe Pityo- 

 campa, which feeds almost exclusively upon the pine. The 

 moth is very similar in appearance to C. processionea, being 

 only distinguished by having three dark transverse stripes 

 on the wings instead of two. Feeding on evergreens, the 

 caterpillars of this species do not require and are not dependant 

 upon the fresh foliage of the spring and summer. They are 

 hatched about the middle of September, and as the cold 

 weather approaches before they are full grown, they make a 

 tolerably substantial nest in which to pass the winter in a dor- 

 mant state. They awake from their hybernating sleep about 

 the 31st of March. Sometimes they remain outside the nest 

 a whole day or more before they venture forth in search of 

 food, which, says Reaumur, " they must be in great want of 

 after their six months of fasting." In fine weather they con- 

 gregate on the outside of their winter nest on their return 

 from feeding excursions, but bad weather drives them for shel- 

 ter to its interior. The web, or silk, of which this nest is com- 

 posed, was sent to Reaumur, in order that he might test its 

 fitness to supersede the product of the silkworm. Experiments 

 were tried, and seemingly with complete success, pretty-look- 

 ing articles being woven from it, but they were found to have 

 the inconvenient property of completely dissolving in hot water. 

 Having attained their full growth, the caterpillars do not, like 

 the allied species, form a series of adjoining cocoons, but bury 

 themselves in the ground, to undergo separately their trans- 

 formation to the chrysalis state. The habit of forming a single 



* Dr. Livingstone, who was seized by a lion, declares that the terrible roar 

 which accompanied the spring seemed to der. rive him, of all sense of pain, though 

 his arm was dreadfully torn. 



