MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 



205 



pores are visible, from which he affirms he has often seen a 

 milky fluid exuding 1 ; and what may confirm his statement, 

 I have more than once observed such a fluid issue from the 

 male of this genus. — The caterpillar of the puss-moth ( Ce- 

 ntra vinuld), as well as those of several other species, has a 

 cleft in the neck between the head and the first pair of legs. 

 From this issues, at the will of the animal, a singular syringe, 

 laterally bifid ; the branches of which are terminated by a 

 nipple perforated like the rose of a watering-pot. By means 

 of this organ, when touched, it will syringe a fluid to a con- 

 siderable distance, which, if it enters the eyes, gives them 

 acute, but not lasting pain. The animal when taken from 

 the tree on which it feeds, though supplied with its leaves, 

 loses this faculty, with which it is probably endowed to drive 

 off the ichneumons that infest it. 2 — And, to name no more, 

 the great tiger-moth (Euprepia Caja), when in its last or 

 perfect state, has near its head a remarkable tuft of the most 

 brilliant carmine, from amongst the hairs of which, if the 

 thorax be touched, some minute drops of transparent water 

 issue, doubtless for some similar purpose. 3 



The next active means of defence with which Creative 

 Wisdom has endowed these busy tribes, are those limbs or 

 weapons with which they are furnished. The insect lately 

 mentioned, the puss-moth, besides the syringes just described, 

 is remarkable for its singular forked tail, entirely dissimilar 

 to the anal termination of the abdomen of most other cater- 

 pillars. This tail is composed of two long cylindrical tubes 

 moveable at their base, and beset with a great number of 

 short stiff spines. When the animal walks, the two branches 

 of the tail are separated from each other, and at every step 

 are lowered so as to touch the plane of position ; hence we 

 may conclude that they assist it in this motion and supply 

 the place of hind legs. If you touch or otherwise incom- 

 mode it, from each of the above branches there issues a long, 

 cylindrical, slender, fleshy, and very flexible organ of a rose 

 colour, to which the caterpillar can give every imaginable 

 curve or inflection, causing it sometimes to assume even a 



1 Rai, Hist Ins. 94. n. 3. 



2 De Geer, i. 324. 



3 Ibid. i. 208. 



