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MURRAIN WORM.” 
Caterpillar of Chcerocampa Elpenor, Westwood. 
Elephant Hawk Moth and Caterpillar.* 
The caterpillar of the Elephant Hawk Moth, which is figured 
above, is by no means given as an injurious insect, as its food is of 
Willow Herb and Ladies’ Bedstraw, or on Vine, if the caterpillar 
chances to be in a garden. But from its extraordinary and repulsive 
appearance it is often looked on with alarm, and at least in one 
district in Ireland as the cause of murrain in cattle, and therefore 
deserves a note to mention its harmlessness. 
In the course of last year Miss Fleming, writing from Derry Lea, 
Monasterevan, Co. Kildare, Ireland, mentioned :—“ There is a very 
large caterpillar sometimes found here (I have seen it four inches long) 
which is said by popular voice to give the disease called * murrain ’ 
when licked or swallowed by a cow. 
“ The people call this creeping thing a Murrain Worm.The 
last I saw was on the approach, travelling as if it was running for its 
life, about five years ago.” 
On the 7th of August Miss Fleming forwarded me a specimen of this 
* The figure of the caterpillar is taken from one of the three beautiful 
drawings by the late W. Buckler, given in Plate xxv., vol. ii., of ‘Larvas of 
British Butterflies and Moths,’ published by the Ray Society in 1887. 
