THE BURNET MOTH. 
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made by the natives of tropical America, and bearing a consider- 
i able resemblance to them in general form, as well as in the loose 
ji and open meshes. So large, indeed, are the meshes made, that 
the inclosed insect can be seen through the network, from the 
time that the old wrinkled skin is cast off and pushed away in 
a heap by the white and shining chrysalis, to the time when the 
( chrysalis shell is in its turn shattered, and the perfect moth 
i creeps slowly into the air, all dull, and sodden, and bewildered, 
with its undeveloped wings looking like four mottled split peas 
i rather than the beautiful members which they soon become, 
p when the air has passed into their vessels, and their multitu- 
i dinous folds have been shaken out. 
Among the pensile insects may be reckoned the beautiful 
Burnet Moth ( Anthrocera filifiendulce), an insect which has 
i already been mentioned, while treating of the pensile 
1 hymenoptera. 
This insect, which is well known for its splendid colours of 
» deep velvet green, and blazing scarlet, is also notable for the 
shape of its antennae, which are so swollen towards the tips as 
to induce many persons to reckon the insect as a butterfly rather 
| than a moth. 
The shape of the cocoon of the Burnet Moth is not unlike 
that of the tiger moth, but its material and position are very 
different. The cocoon of the tiger moth is slung horizontally, 
in hammock fashion, while that of the Burnet is set perpen- 
dicularly, and fastened to the upper part of a grass stem, one side 
being firmly pressed against it The substance of the cocoon 
is quite opaque, greyish, rather stout, very tough, and having 
the silken threads, of which it is chiefly made, so conspicuous, 
that many persons take the cocoon to be the work of a spider. 
Sometimes in a field, or even in a limited portion of a field, 
these cocoons are so numerous that at a little distance they 
look almost as if they were the seeds of the plant rather than 
the cocoons of an insect. In such cases the moths themselves 
may generally be found near the cocoons, sometimes being on 
the ground and sometimes on the wing. 
