THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 229 



ligament, seeing only the violent contortions, the abdominal segments 

 expanding and contracting to the utmost, while at the same time the 

 chrysalis steadily rises toward the silk, naturally concludes that the one 

 movement is the direct result of the other. When I lifted the flap of skin 

 entirely clear of the struggling segments and cut it off a little below the 

 tail, the bendings and contortions were not interrupted by my interference, 

 nor was the effort to reach the silk in the least abated. Held firm by the 

 stretched ligament, which was in plain view, the body rose, and the tail, 

 which had got well outside the padded skin, and was before complete 

 extrication bent backward, now bent forward, and by the upward 

 swing was brought exactly to the silk. Several times as I was 

 lifting, the skin and chrysalis together were dislodged, and fell into my 

 hand. Then by drawing the skin back the ligament was exposed and it 

 was distinctly seen that it was attached to the chrysalis by the pointed 

 ends of the ridges before mentioned, and that there was no other connec- 

 tion between skin and chrysalis. 



After thehooklets of thetailare caught in the silk, the chrysalis whirls one 

 way and then the other, the last segments actively twisting and screwing in 

 order to fasten the hooklets more securely. This movement does not seem 

 to be made for the purpose of rupturing the membrane or for getting rid 

 of the old skin especially, for I noticed that whenever the skin parted and 

 fell just as the silk was grasped, as did sometimes happen, the same 

 whirling and all the movements usually seen followed. It is a wonderful 

 exhibition, and the last act is beyond my comprehension, — namely, the 

 rising of the chrysalis with no external aid save what comes from the 

 ligament. I can only state the fact. 



When the rupture of the skin of the caterpillar of interrogationis first 

 takes place, and the mesonotum is made to appear, this organ is pressed 

 down and flattened, but in a short time, and before the transformation is 

 completed, it swells out. and becomes nearly as large and as prominent as 

 it ever will be ; the head case is pushed forward on the thorax and 

 jammed in, so that on first issuing, the chrysalis is truncated at the anterior 

 side of the mesonotum. When the skin is thrown off, the chrysalis hangs 

 limp and distended, like a long cone, with no prominences except the 

 mesonotum. Presently the segments shorten and become broader, the 

 ends of the wing cases creep nearer the tail, the tuberculated points on 

 the abdomen swell out, the head case pushes up, with its palpi cases, and 

 in course of half an hour the final and characteristic shape is assumed. 



