D I C R A N U K A V I N U L A : 



OK, 



THE PUSS MOTH. 

 (Paper read before the Huddersfield Naturalists' Society, 9th Oct. , 1875.) 



By S. Bairstow. 



I AM sensible of the great disadvantages under which I labour in 

 attempting to give a paper on a scientific subject, to a scientific 

 audience ; but, at the same time, considering that the following 

 remarks have been collated in the commercial rooms of different 

 hotels, and jotted down at intervals : and considering that I am but 

 a student in the science of Nature, and of a very recent date, I must 

 ask you kindly to bear with any little discrepancies of fact or des- 

 cription which I may happen to make, or of any observations that 

 may appear inapplicable to the subject. 



In selecting a title for my paper, I thought it preferable to give a 

 simple and unvarnished account of the life of an insect which, in all 

 its stages of existence, pourtrays peculiarities of an interesting 

 character, rather than attempt to dabble with theories or expositions 

 far above my reach. The Puss Moth was the first creature that ever 

 made me aspire to a proficiency in the study of Nature, and I believe 

 the first that ever particularly arrested my attention to the cater- 

 pillar brood, so to the praises of D. Vinulas virtuous character I 

 dedicate the juvenile effusions of a first essay on a Natural History 

 subject. 



Vinula belongs to the order of moths called Cuspidaice — an order 

 which usually in the larval condition procures or eats its food in the 

 night-time. It is common throughout the United Kingdom, indeed 

 of Vinula I have procured as many as 34 different larvse in one after- 

 noon from one poplar tree, at the back of my father's residence in 

 Fitzwilliam-street. It derives its scientific name from the two-headed 

 or two-pointed shape of the anal tubes situate at the extremity of the 

 tail. The more common name of " Puss " (according to the Rev. 

 J. G. Wood, in his " Common Objects of the Country ") is derived 

 from the soft furry coat of the imago, but this definition I consider 

 somewhat vague. I should say the name is obtained from the appear- 

 ance of the larva, when more particularly in a state of repose or rest 

 (a state far from common with the puss larvee), its body being in a 

 position as to appear for all the world like an enraged cat. Picture 



