80 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



soft down of a hair-brown colour, which is wanting 

 in the male, evidently because to him it would be of 

 no use. As a covering for her own body, it can be 

 of but small service, since she emerges from her 

 pupa-case during the hot days of August, and does 

 not usually live more than a week or a fortnight. Its 

 chief or sole purpose, therefore, is to furnish a co- 

 vering for her eggs. 



When about to lay, the mother gypsey-moth places 

 herself on the trunk of an oak or an elm, invariably 

 with her head downwards, the reason of which posi- 

 tion will be immediately explained. Without the aid 

 of her legs, which are too short to be used like 

 those of the gnat by way of rule and compass, she 

 contrives to place her eggs in the form of an inverted 

 cone. She first makes a little bed of this down, into 

 which she thrusts the egg intended for the point of 

 her cone ; and this egg, being covered with adhesive 

 gluten, attaches around it all the hairs of the down 

 with which it comes in contact, and also sticks to the 

 bark of the tree, from its being pushed home. Pro- 

 ceeding in the same manner, she continues for seve- 

 ral hours adding to the mass ; but she does not in 

 general finish the operation in less than two days, 

 indulging in occasional rests when fatigued with her 

 labour. At intervals, also, she takes care to protect 

 the eggs placed in the cone with an exterior covering 

 of the same down There is one part of these opera- 

 tions not a little remarkable. In the bed which she 

 first makes for the eggs, the hairs of the down either 

 point at right angles to the bark of the tree, or at 

 least are tossed down with little regularity ; but in 

 the external coping, which is designed to keep out the 

 winter rains, the hairs are carefully placed in a sloping 

 direction, like the tiles on a house, or the pile of 

 a well brushed hat, pointing downwards towards the 

 base of the cone The latter is usually concave, be- 



