28 



SILKWORMS. 



sloping away from the body in such a way that the fore -wing 

 almost entirely conceals the hind one on each side, and therefore, 

 at first sight it might be thought that there were but two wings. 

 In rest the wings lie horizontally, and do not conceal the body. 



With care we can distinguish three parts to the body : first, the 

 head, which is by far the smallest of the three, a small white 

 rounded part which carries two great black eye-masses, and two 

 feathery organs, the antennae, projecting from its sides like a huge 

 pair of moustaches ; secondly, the thorax, a broad and squarish 

 part immediately behind the head, and having both legs and wings 

 attached to it ; and finally, the abdomen which fills up the space 

 between the hind wings and projects considerably beyond them, 

 but carries no appendages. If we compare the moth with the 

 caterpillar that produced it, and endeavour to trace the corre- 



Fi;. ii. Silkworm moth Male. 



Fig. 12. Silkworm moth Female. 



spondence of parts in these two creatures so utterly unlike, we find 

 that the head of the moth corresponds to the same part in the 

 caterpillar, the thorax to the three segments behind the head 

 which carried the true legs, and the abdomen to the rest of the 

 body. The segmentation of the body is a good deal concealed 

 by the long hairy scales, with which the whole creature is covered ; 

 still with care, we can make out nine rings in the abdomen, 

 especially when the moth twists that part about. This, it will be 

 seen, corresponds with the number of segments in that part of the 

 larva's body which answers to it. By a little hard brushing with 

 a camel's hair brush the scales may be removed from the body, 

 and its real structure thus laid bare. It is covered with a brown, 

 horny skin, which readily shows its composite nature. 



The divisions of the thorax cannot very easily be seen on the 



