MOTH TRANSFORMATIONS. 29 



inanimate suspension, our little Tortoise-shell comes out finally, 

 a Butterfly complete. 



The "coming out' J of Moths bears a general resemblance 

 to that of Butterflies, only that owing to the chrysalides of the 

 former being usually enveloped in a cocoon, or outer covering, 

 they have not only to burst from their aurelian skin, but also 

 to effect their egress through a barrier, sometimes of silk only, 

 but often fortified by much harder material. The moth of 

 the Silk -worm, enveloped in her thick woven ball, is supposed 

 to facilitate her escape by a dissolving acid, an agent said to 

 be employed also by the Puss-Moth in breaking through not 

 a mere silken web, however strongly wrought but the wall 

 of a cell composed of woody fragments, silk, and gluten, 

 cemented by the latter into almost stone-like hardness. The 

 Caterpillar of the Great Goat-Moth (or Cossus),* a dweller 

 within the interior of oaks and willows, on the wood of which 

 it is a feeder, constructs itself a compact cell or case, of 

 materials nearly similar to those employed by the Puss t 

 namely wood, reduced partly by decay, partly by its own jaws, 

 to the resemblance of saw-dust. With this, bound together 

 by silk, and cemented by glue, it usually composes the ex- 

 terior of its case which is lined also by a silken web. 



Our exploration of a hollow willow-tree was rewarded at 

 the beginning of last August, by the discovery of such a cell, J 



* Frontispiece. t Frontispiece. 



% Vignette to ' Moths as Operatives.' 



