238 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 
horns its ears—and the reflexed head simulating a tail 
curled over its back?. In this seemingly unnatural atti- 
tude it will remain without motion for a very long time. 
Some lepidopterous larvee, that fix the one half of the 
body and elevate the other, agitate the elevated part, 
whether it be the head or the tail, as if to strike what dis- 
turbs them>. The giant caterpillar ofa large North Ame- 
rican moth (Bombyx regalis, F’.) is armed behind the head 
and at the back of the anterior segments with seven or 
eight strong curved spines from half to three-fourths of an 
inch in length. Mr. Abbot tells us that this caterpillar 
is called in Virginia the hickory-horned devil, and that 
when disturbed it draws up its head, shaking or striking 
it from side to side ; which attitude gives it so formidable 
an aspect, that no one, he affirms, will venture to handle 
it, people in general dreading it as much as a rattle-snake. 
When, to convince the Negroes that it was harmless, 
he himself took hold of this animal in their presence, they 
used to reply that it could not sting him, but would them °. 
The species of a genus of beetles separated from Can- 
tharis, L., under the name of Malachius, F., endeavour 
to alarm their enemies and show their rage by puffing out 
and inflating four vesicles from the sides of their body, 
which are of a bright red, soft, and of an irregular shape. 
When the cause of alarm is removed, they are retracted, 
so that only a small portion of them appears 4. 
Insects often endeavour to repell or escape from assail- 
ants by their motions. Mr. White, mentioning a wild bee 
that makes its nest on the summit of a remarkable hill 
* Reaum. it. 260. ¢. 20. f. 10. 11. Compare Sepp. IV. t.i. f. 3-7. 
> Thid. 1. 100. © Smith’s Abbot's Ins. of Georgia, ii, 121. 
¢ De Geer, iv. 74. 
