54 
and doubles himself together for a moment, and then straightens him¬ 
self again and resumes his journey. The long stiff hairs with which 
he is protected, much like a porcupine, we should think would render 
it impossible for an insect enemy to place an egg anywhere upon his 
skin. Mr. P. Reid tells me he once saw one of these caterpillars 
crawling with a hurried, eager step across a dusty road, with an Ich¬ 
neumon fly pursuing him, striving to cling upon his back, but falling 
off in consequence of the rapid motion of the caterpillar. The fly 
finding itself frustrated in its every effort, next, as if humming to itself 
the refrain “ ’Twill never do to give up so,” flew a few feet forward 
of the caterpillar, and turning darted back with all his energy, hitting 
the caterpillar square in his face. The caterpillar thus roughly assailed 
suddenly stopped and bent himself together in his accustomed man¬ 
ner, and in an instant the fly alighting upon his back, appeared to 
fix an egg at the margin of one of the breathing pores, which had 
become fairly exposed by the caterpillar doubling his body thus to¬ 
gether. In a moment the caterpillar w r as recovered from his shock 
and was crawling rapidly forward again, when the fly struck him a 
second time in the same way and thus he was stopped and had an 
egg deposited upon his side three times, before he reached the tall 
grass beside the highway, in which he was secure from further moles¬ 
tation. And it is probable' that by some artifice equally curious and 
remarkable, the parasite of the cabbage-moth is able to drop an egg 
into the skin of his irritable, brisk motiomd victim. 
This moth pertains to .the genus Cerostoma , of Latreille and the 
British entomologists, a genus belonging to the family Tineidje, and 
intimately related to that to which the Palmer worm pertains—both 
genera having the feelers with ,a tuft of scales projecting forward like 
a beak, from the middle of which beak the slender terminal joint 
stands upwards like a little horn. The larvae of the two genera are 
also identical in their appearance and habits. The genus Cerostoma 
is described as differing from that of Chaetoehilus , in having the wings 
narrower and rounded at their ends, differences w T hich are so slight as 
to be scarcely discernible on a comparison of this species with the moth 
of the Palmer worm. The antennae. narrower, are‘directed forward 
instead of being turned backwards and lying upon the back; but this is a 
character which is liable to be deceptive, except when observed in the 
living specimen. The light color of the inner margin of the wings, 
however, and the lace-like cocoon of the pupa, leave no doubt that it 
is the genus Cerostoma to which our insect must be referred. 
Stephens (Illustrations, Haustellata, vol. iv, p. 341) says the spiral 
tongue in this genu's is “shortish,” while Westwood (Humphreys’ 
British Moths, vol. ii, p. 245) gives it as “long and slender.” The 
latter is certainly its character in our insect, where it is about equal 
to the antennae in length. Our species is closely allied to the C. 
jJorrecteUa, Linn., the worm of w T hich Mr. Westwood found feeding 
upon the buds of the White Rocket, a plant of the same family with the 
cabbage, and which forms an open net-work cocoon the same as our species. 
The worm of the cabbage moth is nearly cylindrical in its form, 
rather thickest in the middle, and slightly tapering towards each end. 
It is over a quarter of an inch long, measuring when full grown 0.35, 
and is the thickness of a coarse knitting needle. It is varied in its 
color, but is most commonly pale green, of the same hue as the cab¬ 
bage leaf. .Some are of a deeper tinge and others paler, varying to greenish 
