nvenience. They are the resort of a hairy greenish caterpillar[1],
longitudinally striped, great numbers of which frequent them, and at a
certain stage of growth descend by a silken thread to the ground and
hurry away, probably in search of a suitable spot in which to pass
through their metamorphoses. Should they happen to alight, as they often
do, upon some lounger below, and find their way to his unprotected skin,
they inflict, if molested, a sting as pungent, but far more lasting,
than that of a nettle or a star-fish.

[Footnote 1: The species of moth with which it is identified has not yet
been determined, but it most probably belongs to a section of
Boisduval's genus _Bombyx_ allied to _Cnethocampa_, Stephens.]

Attention being thus directed to the quarter whence an assailant has
lowered himself down, the caterpillars above will be found in clusters,
sometimes amounting to hundreds, clinging to the branches and the bark,
with a few straggling over the leaves or suspended from them by lines.
These pests are so annoying to children as well as destructive to the
foliage, that it is often necessary to singe them off the trees by a
flambeau fixed on the extremity of a pole; and as they fall to the
ground they are eagerly devoured by the crows and domestic fowls.[1]

[Footnote 1: Another caterpillar which feeds on the jasmine flowering
Carissa, stings with such fury that I have known a gentleman to shed
tears while the pain was at its height. It is short and broad, of a pale
green, with fleshy spines on the upper surface, each of which seems to
be charged with the venom that occasions this acute suffering. The moth
which this caterpillar produces, _Neaera lepida_, Cramer; _Limacodes
graciosa_, Westw., has dark brown wings, the primary traversed by a
broad green band. It is common in the western side of Ceylon. The larvae
of the genus _Adolia_ are also hairy, and sting with virulence.]

_The Wood-carrying Moth_.--There is another family of insects, the
singular habits of which will not fail to attract the traveller in the
cultivated tracts of Ceylon--these are moths of the genus
_Oiketicus_[1], of which the females are devoid of wings, and some
possess no articulated feet. Their larvae construct for themselves cases,
which they suspend to a branch frequently of the pomegranate[2],
surrounding them with the stems of leaves, and thorns or pieces of twigs
bound together by threads, till the whole presents the appearance of