MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. 183 



larva3 upon which they feed. We can often see this 

 process carried on upon the body of a potatoe worm, 

 when it is full grown and just ready to change into a 

 cocoon. It will be completely covered with man}- 

 hundred minute white silk-like bodies, which look like 

 grains of rice, but which are nothing but the cocoons 

 of small Ichneumon flies, which have been raised in 

 the body of that caterpillar, and work themselves out 

 of its skin when ready for their own metamorphosis 

 into a cocoon. This change takes place very rapidly 

 and then they fall to the ground to await their final 

 transformation into a perfect Ichneumon. 



Lastly, caterpillars are not only indirectly useful to 

 man, but they are directly of the greatest importance 

 to him ; they not only indirectly furnish him with 

 palatable food, but they directly supply him with his 

 costliest and most beautiful apparel. What a rebuke 

 for human pride! The gaudy and spangled robes 

 that deck earth's greatest potentates are originally 

 woven by the despised worm that crawls beneath 

 their feet ! What a profound lesson in the economy 

 of nature, and how striking an illustration of the 

 dependence of all created things! An apparently 

 insignificant caterpillar becomes one of the most im- 

 portant articles in the manufacture and commerce of 

 the world. An infant butterfly weaves its own beau- 

 tiful colors, into a texture that becomes not only the 

 splendid and appropriate ornament of female beauty, 



