Volume 1

A hand-book to the order Lepidoptera / by W.F. Kirby.

  • Kirby, W. F. (William Forsell), 1844-1912.
Date:
1896-1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A hand-book to the order Lepidoptera / by W.F. Kirby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    pubescence ; but in some cases they are furnished with rigid hairs and numerous long spines. These hairs are sometimes simple, but more commonly they have a series of small pointed pieces springing from each side, like leaves from a stem. They are seldom placed irregularly over the surface of the skin, but usually issue from a tubercle, and diverge in all directions. These tubercular elevations vary greatly in number, and are placed in a row across the middle of the segments. The spinous caterpillars indigenous to Britain are but little remarkable when compared with many exotic species; but we have several which afford good examples of this description of defensive armour, such, for instance, as the common kinds that feed on the nettle. In these, and most other instances, the spines are sufficiently strong and sharp as readily to pierce the skin of the hand. They are very often beset with hairs, and frequently divide towards the tip into several small branches. Even when so numerous as entirely to cover the body, they are not placed promiscuously, but arranged like the tubercles formerly mentioned, in a certain order. Each seg- ment, with the frequent exception of that next the head, is armed with a transverse series, varying in number from four to eight. The accompanying figure represents a magnified section of the caterpillar of [/yra//ie/s] cardui, exhibiting the number, mode of arrangement, and structure of the spines (Plate II., fig. 5). These appendages in many foreign cater- pillars are said to sting like a nettle, and there can be no doubt that in all cases they are a powerful means of defence, not only against the smaller birds,* but even against more for- midable enemies.” {Duncafi.) The sole business of insects during the larval stage of their * Few birds prey upon hairy caterpillars, although the Cuckoo, which is extremely fond of the larvce of the Tiger Moth, Hypercompa caia, Linn, (called, par excellence, the hairy-worm, or more frequently, the Woolly Il^ar), forms an exception to the rule,