
LEPIDOPTERA. 145 
\ate and hind legs. Then it has only to raise and straighten the 
ive rings which had formed the loop, and to ady 
1 distance equal to the length of five segments. 
made, the caterpillar making the s 
‘second and following steps. 
ance its head to 
The step is thus 
ame movements in taking the 
This sort of gait has gained for them the name of Geometers, 
because they seem to measure the road over which they travel. 
'When they make a step, they apply the part of their body which 
(hey have just curved up, to the ground, in exactly the same 
‘way as a land surveyor applies his chain to it. 
| These looper caterpillars cannot shorten nor lengthen their seg- 
ments at will, as other caterpillars, but only bend their bodies. There 
|) 



Fig. 100.—Caterpillar of the Swallow- 
tail Moth (Ourapteryx sambucaria). 
|re many species whose bodies are cylindrical, stiff, and of the same 
olour as bark. Their attitudes deceive even the close observer. 
‘hey embrace the stem of a leaf or twig, with their hinder and 
jatermediate legs, whilst the rest of their body, vertically elevated, 
jemains stiff and immovable for hours together. F ig. 100 shows 
jhe caterpillar of the Swallow-tail moth ( Ourapteryx sambucaria) 
\2 this strange position. Now this is a feat of strength which 
ae most skilful of our acrobats, ordinary and extraordinary, 
iy 


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