SPIRAL FORM OF EGGS. 85 



These eg^s were extremely small, and the down very 

 fine, like the short fur of the beaver, and of a pretty 

 squirrel -gray colour. The eggs were oblong, and 

 placed on end, at right angles to the branch; as was 

 also their downy envelope, which differed in this re- 

 spect from the imbricated and smoothly brushed 

 coping of the moths above described. There is no- 

 thing of this kind, says Reaumur, which we ought to 

 consider it diflicult for an insect to execute, when we 

 are acquainted with the admirable instruments with 

 which nature has fiirnished them,* 



■TV'nj^^ 



^''''''''^^w 



Spiral group of eggs of an unknown moth. 



The spiral form of eggs deposited upon a branch 

 may, in particular years, be seen in almost every 

 orchard and every hedge, being the method followed 

 by the lackey moth {Clisiocampa neustria^ Ste- 

 phens) and its congeners. The precise manner in 

 which the mother lackey proceeds has not, so far as 

 we know, been witnessed by any naturalist ; and 

 though Reaumur reared a great number on pur- 

 pose to discover it, all his efforts proved unsuccessful. 

 An examination, however, of the arrangement of the 

 eggs themselves, shows that they are placed in a 

 manner excellently adapted to secure their adhesion 

 to the branch, and to prevent their sustaining injury. 

 The egg is somewhat of the form of a funnel-shaped 

 wine-glass — broader at top than at bottom;! and it 



* Reaumur, Mem. ii, 107. 



i See two of these eggs figured in • Insect Architecture,' p. 19. 



