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TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 
There are some moths belonging to the Bombycina group 
which have great resemblance to the group Noctnina (or those 
which are usually night-fliers), on account of the size of their bodies 
and the proportions of their wings. They have the antennae longer 
than the thorax, and they are pectinated in the males. The trunk 
is rudimentary, but perfectly distinct, and the fore-wings are 
frequently marked with a projecting tuft of scales on the inner 
margin. This, when the wings are in repose and in their usual 
roof shape, forms a little prominence on the outline of the wing, 
whence the term “prominent,” which is applied to several of the 
species (Stainton). There is nothing very striking about the 
perfect insects, but the larvae present many singular structural pe- 
culiarities. They are as a whole very variable in form. At one 
extreme of the series the Centra larvae have only fourteen legs, 
but they have two long projecting tails upon the last segment of 
the body; at the other extreme the larvae have sixteen legs and 
no peculiarity of form — those of the Buff Tip Moth for instance. 
Most have, however, the gift of holding the hind segments of the 
body erect when in repose. Many of the larvae are hairless, but 
they are downy in the Buff Tip, and usually there are projections 
on the twelfth segment. The pupae are smooth, and rarely make 
a cocoon. 
What our country people call the Puss Moth the French term 
the Fork Tail; it is one of those Notodontidce of which we are now 
taking notice, and English entomologists call it Centra vimtla , 
whilst on the other side of the channel Dicranura is its generic 
name. This moth is very common in the last week of April, 
and during the whole of May, and it flies in damp places, near 
willows, sallows, and poplar trees during the evening. All day 
it hides under the leaves or in the hollow trees. It has whitish 
wings with numerous V-shaped markings upon them. The female 
lays its eggs, which are hatched early in the same month of June, 
and the caterpillars may be seen here and there, but not in 
companies, upon the poplar leaves. Their colour is almost black 
when they are small, but a few weeks elapse, and the caterpillars 
having moulted several times and grown large, very different- 
looking insects result. These smooth caterpillars, with their great 
heads drawn back as it were into the first segment of the body, 
