Note 293 — LETTER XXX.

The larva of a scarce moth (Stauropus Fagi. See Plate XIX. Fig. 4) is an exception to this. The first pair of its legs are of the ordinary stature, but the two next are remarkably long, and so thin and weak as to be unable to bear the body. Pezold. 119. Another minute caterpillar described by Reaumur has the third pair of the legs apparently fleshy and singularly incrassated at the apex into a pyriform figure, terminated by a pair of claws. This conformation is for some particular purpose in the economy of the animal, since they are the most busily employed of all in arranging the threads of her web. Reaum. ii. 258. In the larva of a geometer (Geometra lunaria) the third pair are remarkably long. Illig. Mag. 402. In that of another moth, according to Kuhn (Naturf. xvi. 78. t. iv. f. 3), the third pair of the fore-legs is remarkably incrassated, being twice as thick and long as the other pair, though consisting of the same number of joints, the last of which has claws.