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INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 





sloughed skin altogether. This operation causes, says 

 Bonnet, a spectator to tremble for the consequences, 

 for every movement seems to render its fall almost 

 certain. It is, however, provided with means which 

 answer the same purpose as hands, to enable it to 

 climb; it can elongate and contract at pleasure the 

 rings of its body. It accordingly, with two con- 

 tiguous rings, lays hold, as with a pair of pincers, of 

 the portion of the sloughed skin nearest the head ; 

 and elongating the rings beyond this, seizes upon a 

 more distant portion, while it lets go the first. Repeat- 

 ing this process several times, it at length arrives at 

 the silk button. 



a, suspended caterpillar of Vanessa Antiopa splitting its sliin for 

 the evolution of the chrysalis, h, the head of the chrysalis emerg- 

 ing, c, the same process farther advanced, d, the perfect pupa. 



The tail of a chrysalis, to an ordinary observer, 

 would appear smooth, and quite unfitted for being 



