136 STATES OF INSECTS. 



and in proportion as this is retracted, the claws turn 

 their points inwards, so as not to impede its motion a . 



The prolegs with claws may be further divided into 

 four different kinds. 



1. In the larvae of the great majority of butterflies 

 and moths they assume the form of a truncated cone, 

 the lower and smaller end of which is expanded into a 

 semicircular or subtriangular plate, having the inner 

 half of its circumference beset with the claws above men- 

 tioned ; and, from its great power of dilating and con- 

 tracting, admirably adapted for performing the offices of 

 a foot. Jungius calls these ]egs pedes elephantini b ', and 

 the term is not altogether inapplicable, since they exhibit 

 considerable resemblance to the clumsy but accommo- 

 dating lee; and foot of the gigantic animal he alludes to. 



2. The larvas of many minute moths, particularly of 

 the Fabrician genera Tortrix and Tinea — those which 

 live in convoluted leaves, the interior of fruits, &c, as well 

 as the Cossits, and Some other large moths, — have their 

 prolegs of a form not very unlike those of the preceding 

 class, but shorter, and without any terminal expansion ; 

 the apex, moreover, is wholly, instead of half, surround- 

 ed with claws c ; the additional provision of which, to- 

 gether with a centrical kind of nipple capable of being 

 protruded or retracted, in some measure, though imper- 

 fectly, supplies the place of the more flexible plate-like 

 expansion present in the first class. 



3. The third class is composed of a very few Lepido- 

 pterous larvae which have their prolegs very thick and 

 conical at the base, but afterwards remarkably slender, 



a Lyonnet Anatom. 84. t. iu.f, 11, 12. 



b Hist. Vcrmium, 3 30. c p LATi: XXIII. Fig. 1. 



