282 LETTEES FEOM ALABAMA. 
of spines; these spines are of a yellower green than 
the body. 
Madame Merian (if I recollect rightly, for I have 
not here any means of reference), has mentioned a 
caterpillar of Surinam which has the same power 
of stinging. These, however, are the only cases 
in which it has ever fallen under my own obser- 
vation. 
Let me mention to you some particulars of the 
history of yet another caterpillar, a still greater 
oddity in its way. Early in the month of Sep- 
tember I found upon an apple-tree many singular 
looking spindle-shaped cases or cocoons, made of a 
strong tough silk of a dirty white hue. The ex- 
tremities were tapered to a point ; the length was 
from one and a half to two inches ; the upper end 
terminated in a silken band, fastened tightly round 
a twig, from which the case was suspended. The 
surface was thickly studded with pieces of twigs, 
from one-third to two-thirds of an inch long, 
attached longitudinally, but somewhat slightly : 
these were most numerous in the upper part. I 
made an incision in the silk, and found within a 
smooth plump caterpillar, dull reddish-brown, 
tapering at the extremities, the head and first three 
segments horny and polished, white with black 
spots. I threw the cases into a box, and the next 
day examined one or two more, and found that 
some contained pupm. In a large cocoon there 
was a dark brown pupa, much elongated, with no 
vestige of wings in the usual place, tlie head, legs, 
and antennm very small (for all these members can 
be traced in a Lepidopterous pupa, as in the imago) ; 
in another was a pupa much smaller, which had 
wings of middling size, and short thick antennae. 
