P L A T E LXXVI.

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On the communication of Mr. Jones, of Chelsea , we presume thatthis Insect was formerly known among the English Collectors, andreceived from them the appellation Fejloon Moth-, but it must have been 'p

extremely rare even at that time, as it does not appear in Harris’s List it

of English Moths, nor has a single specimen, or its remains, been vvhic

found among the old Collections, which have been handed down to a f ter

the Entomologists of the present day. small

Chry

On the 16th of August, 1793, I shook the Caterpillar from one of and ,

the high branches of an oak-tree, in Darcnt wood, Kent; it remainedmotionless for some time when in the net, and I concluded that it might T

have sustained an injury by its fall; but I soon after discovered that it HOtec

was naturally a sluggish, inactive creature, and had received no da-mage; it remained several days in the Caterpillar state, but as it was Ti

almost ready to change into Chrysalis, I had only an opportunity ofbeing convinced that oak was its proper food.

This Caterpillar is a most singular creature; at one time it wouldflatten itself, and be considerably extended in breadth, or length; atanother time it would gather itself up like an hedge-hog, or becomealmost round, and in a few minutes after it would be flat again; andfrequently the orange colour on the back would be obliterated; some-times it so nearly resembled the Caterpillars of several of the Papiliotribe, that I suspected it to be one of the Hair-Jlreak Butterflies, orrather the Caterpillar of a new species. On the 23d of August itbegan to spin, and in a short time after its cafe was completed.

The cafe in which it passed to the Pupa state, was very firmly con-structed, and precluded an opportunity of observing the differentsymptoms of change, which would otherwise have been visible. ■ Thiscafe, which was exactly in the form of an egg, was at first of a paleflesh colour, but in the course of a few days it had heightened to avery fine sanguineous, and after to a scarlet, or nearly vermilion co-lour; this colour it retained for several months, but as the time forthe emancipation of the Moth within approached, the brightness of