
' 
I 

LEPIDOPTERA. 
relate this operation himself, which must without doubt be pain- 
ful to the poor animal :— 
‘“Tts two teeth are the pincers the caterpillar uses in seizing 
a portion of one or other of the tufts of hair; and when it 
has seized it, it tears it out without much difficulty. It at once 
places this against the tissue it has already commenced, in which 
it entangles it at first simply by pressure; it fixes it then 
more securely by spinning over it. It does not leave off tearing 
out its hairs till it has entirely stripped them off. When the 
caterpillar has taken between its teeth and torn out a whole 
tuft of hair, the head carries it and deposits it on some part of 
the lower surface of the cocoon; but it does not leave the hairs 
of such a large parcel together. The next moment one sees 
its head moving about very quickly; then taking a portion of 

Fig. 114.—Larva of Acronycta aceris. Fig. 115.—Larva of Acronycta aceris taken 
out of its cocoon, 
the hairs from the little heap, it distributes them about on the 
neighbouring parts of the cocoon. If one opens one of these 
shells before the caterpillar has become a chrysalis, the larva, 
which is quite naked, and which was only known by its hair, can 
be no longer recognised.” 
The caterpillar of the Tiger Moth or Woolly Bear, called by 
Réaumur Marte or Herisson (Chelonia caja, Fig. 116), 1s 
covered with long inclined hairs. This caterpillar also makes 
use of its hairs for strengthening the tissue of its cocoon ; but 
whether it feels the pain more acutely than the first, or whether 
it has much more to suffer, it does not tear out its hairs. It adopts 
another system; it cuts them. The caterpillar is then enveloped 

