Abstract
I HAVE just read, with interest your report of the paper on “Venomnous Caterpillars,” which appeared in your last. Towards the end of the report Mr. A. Murray refers to a hairy caterpillar which he received from Brazil, and remarks that “if the caterpillars have a special venom, then, as in the nettle, there should be a gland at the base of each hair, which should be hollow.” I think I know the caterpillar to which he refers, and if I am right, its hairs are not exactly venomous, but produce a considerable amount of irritation in the skin. When in Brazil in 1859, I collected some of these caterpillars. They are very similar in appearance to the larvæ of the British Arctia, but when their hairs are examined under a microscope, they are found to consist of a series of barbed points, the point of each succeeding barb fitting into the divergence of the preceding barbs; at least, that is my recollection, for I have not examined them since then, and cannot find any specimens to do so now. The caterpillar is called in Maranham, “largata de fogo,” that is, “fire caterpillar.” After these hairs have afforded their protection to the caterpillar during its life, it carefully removes them from its body and weaves them in its cocoon, so that the pupa is thus as safe from intruders as the larva itself was. When a child, I recollect that Maranham was occasionally visted by great members of a particular kind of moth, the dust of whose wings produced a very great irritation on the skin, the least touch of one being sufficient to render you miserable for the rest of the evening. I perfectly remember a drove of these putting a quick temination to a small dance at home, as you may easily conjecture that ladies in evening costume are not well protected against such visitors. When in Maranham in 1859, I heard that these moths had not been seen there for many years. I believe their visits were during the rainy season. Some of the British Bombices, B. quercus, for example, and some of other genera, are said to possess irritable hair. But in B. quercus the hairs are not barbed, and, not being an entomologist, I can give no information respecting the others.
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WILSON, H. Venomous Caterpillars. Nature 8, 45 (1873). https://doi.org/10.1038/008045a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/008045a0
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