234 



MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 



The caterpillar of the hawk-moth of the Filipendula (Zygena 

 Filipendulm) is of the former description, moving in the most 

 leisurely manner ; while that of Apatela leporina, a moth un- 

 known in Britain, is named after the hare, from its great 

 speed. The caterpillar of another moth, the species of which 

 seems not to be ascertained, is celebrated by De Geer for the 

 wonderful celerity of its motions. When touched it darts 

 away backwards as well as forwards, giving its body an undu- 

 lating motion with such force and rapidity, that it seems to 

 fly from side to side. 1 Cuvier observes, that the grubs of 

 some coleopterous and neuropterous insects, which have only 

 the six perfect legs, by means of them lay hold of any surround- 

 ing object, and, fixing themselves to it, drag the rest of their 

 body to that point ; and that those of many Capricorn beetles 

 and their affinities (but that of Callidium violaceum is an 

 apode 2 ) have these legs excessively minute and almost nothing; 

 that they move in the sinuosities which they bore by the 

 assistance of their mandibles, with which they fix themselves, 

 and also of several dorsal and ventral tubercles, by which they 

 are supported against the sides of their cavity, and push 

 themselves along, in the same manner as a chimney-sweeper 

 — by the pressure of his knees, elbows, shoulder-blades, and 

 other prominent parts — pushes himself up a chimney. 3 The 

 larva of the ant-lion {Myrmeliori), with the exception of one 

 species, which moves in the common way, always walks 

 backwards, even when its legs are cut off. 



The jumpers, amongst pedate larvae, as far as they are 

 known, are not very numerous, and will not detain you long. 

 When the caterpillar of Lithosia Quadra, a moth not uncom- 

 mon, would descend from one branch or leap to another, it 

 approaches to the edge of the leaf on which it is stationed, 

 bends its body together, and retiring a little backwards, as if 

 to take a good situation, leaps through the air, and, however 

 high the jump, alights on its legs like a cat. That of another 

 moth {Herminia rostralis) will also leap to a considerable 

 height. 4 



Another species of motion, which is peculiar to larvae, — 



1 De Geer, i. 424. 



3 Anatom. Comp. i. 430. 



2 Kirby in Linn. Trans, v. 258. 

 * Rosel, I. iv. 112. vi. 14. 



