THE BOMBYCINA. 
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upon the roots of hops, nettles, and burdocks, being common all 
over Europe, and even among the hilly districts. 
Australia, however, is the land where the Hepialidce flourish. 
One of them has a caterpillar which may really be called enormous 
in size ; it lives within the trunks of the beef-wood trees, and 
although it is a flabby, flat, and white-looking grub, it is by no 
means despised as a luxury by the natives. The Australians eat 
the caterpillars uncooked, and peel and squeeze them first of all, 
just as we do a fig or a peach. 
The Goat Moth ( Cossus ligniperda) is a well-known insect, with 
a short body and large and broad wings of a pale brownish-white 
colour, marked with short wavy lines. The caterpillar of this 
insect is flesh or wine coloured, and has a few hairs upon it ; and 
a faint and disagreable smell is evolved from it, which is left 
behind upon the wood over which it has recently crawled. This 
larva gnaws the old trunks of willows and elms, and by excavating 
large galleries in the trees, it often destroys some of the largest 
and finest. It is admirably adapted for this sort of life, and the 
upper lip is not notched ; moreover, the jaws are strongly toothed. 
The simple lip and the dentated jaws enable the larva to gnaw 
away at the wood, which it does not want to hold like a leaf. The 
membranous legs of the larva are short, and are furnished with a 
ring of hooks, so as to allow it to move readily in the long galleries. 
When fully grown the caterpillar is nearly three inches in 
length, and is as thick as a man’s finger ; this size is only attained 
after at least three years’ gnawing and tunneling under the bark 
of the trees it injures. It makes a cocoon of the gnawings of wood, 
which it fastens together with a viscous secretion, and then all is 
lined with soft silk. This case is so placed that the end corres- 
ponding to the head of the chrysalis (so writes Dr. Baird) is turned 
towards a hole which the caterpillar has had the precaution to 
form beforehand in the bark of the tree on that side from which 
it is about to escape. This hole remains closed outside, but the 
partition is so thin that the slightest effort can break it and let 
the prisoner free. The chrysalis itself bursts this slight partition 
and escapes about half way through before breaking its own bonds 
and assuming the perfect form. Some of the moths measure at 
least three inches across the wings. 
