Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Exotic Moths.djvu/205

Rh When the caterpillar raises its head, and draws the anterior segments together, as it is in the habit of doing when disturbed, it has a very formidable appearance, the spines forming a kind of crest over its head. At the same time it shakes its head from side to side as if preparing to make an attack on its assailant. By the natives of Virginia it is called the Hickory Horned Devil, and Abbot states that they are so afraid of it that he never saw one who would venture to handle it, people in general dreading it as much as a rattle-snake. "Nevertheless," he adds, "it is perfectly harmless, neither stinging by its horns nor any other part. When I have handled this animal in the presence of the negroes, to convince them it was innocent, they would reply that it could not sting me, but would them." When the caterpillar changes its last skin, the horns fall off along with it. It feeds on Persimmon (Diospyros Virginiana, Linn.), walnut, hickory, and sumach. Abbot found one to enter the ground on the 16th June, and the fly came out on the 27th July; another on the 5th August, and remained in the chrysalis till May 9th. The chrysalis is comparatively short and thick, with a small mucro at the tail, and the edges of the segments without spinulæ; in these respects differing much from the chrysalis of C. imperialis, which is rather narrow and elongated, the tail of considerable length and bifid at the extremity, and the edges of the segments armed with a regular series of spines.