164 



THE INSECT WORLD. 



by the liquids which are contained in the insect which has just 

 emerged, and whose wings are no longer confined in their cases. At 

 the time of its birth the wings are flat and thick ; as they grow, litde 

 by little they spread themselves out and become curled up. When 

 they are completely developed and flattened the wings become firm 

 and hard imperceptibly, and this firmness extends at the same time 

 to the whole of the body. 



Figs. 131 and 132, borrowed, like the preceding, from the 14th 



/N,,^^ 



Fig. 131. — Moth whose wings are developing. Fig. 132. — Moth whose wings are developed, ji 



Memoir of Reaumur {sur la frafisformafion des chrysalides e7i papillons)^ 

 show the states through which the wings of the same moth passJ 

 before they are thoroughly developed. 



Those pupoe enclosed in cocoons free themselves entirely or ir| 

 part from their old skin, in the shell itself; but the imago is still 3] 

 prisoner. It has broken through a first enclosure; it must op£ 

 itself a way through the second. How does it manage to boi 

 through the often very solid walls of this second prison, so as 

 regain its liberty ? Reaumur states that in the Lackey Moth {Bo7nb) 

 neusiria) the_ head is the only instrument of which the insect make:] 

 use in opening a passage, the compound eyes then acting like filf 

 These files cut the very fine threads of which the cocoon is compose( 

 and as soon as the end of the cocoon is pierced through, the insec 

 uses its thorax like a wedge, to enlarge the hole. It very soojj 

 manages to get its two front legs out, fixes itself by them on to \h\ 

 outside, and little by little emerges from its prison. 



