CYPRESS-SPURGE CATERPILLAR. 179 



when the period of its pupa trance has expired in the 

 following July, it makes its exit in the form of a 

 yellowish moth, with several brown spots above, and 

 a brown band on each of its four wings below. It is 

 also furnished with a sort of tail. 



On the cypress spurge (Euphorbia cyparissias), 

 a native woodland plant, but not of very common 

 occurrence, may be found, towards the end of Octo- 

 ber, a caterpillar of a middle size, sparely tufted with 

 hair, and striped with black, white, red, and brown. 

 The leaves of the plant, which are in the form of 

 short narrow blades of grass, are made choice of by 

 the caterpillar to construct its cocoon, which it does 

 with great neatness and regularity, the end of each 

 leaf, after it has been detached from the plant, being 

 fixed to the stem, and the other leaves placed parallel, 

 as they are successively added. The other ends of 

 all these are bent inwards, so as to form a uniformly 

 rounded oblong figure, somewhat larger at one end 

 than at the other. 



A caterpillar, which builds a very similar cocoon 

 to the last mentioned, may be found upon a more 

 common plant — the yellow snap-dragou or toad-flax 



