8 



HISTORY OF INSECTS. 



folds itself, and writhes about to dislodge its enemy ; out 

 its struggles are useless : the ichneumon elevates its body 

 into a kind of arch, bending the ovi- 

 positor forward beneath it nearly 

 to its mouth ; it then steadies the 

 ovipositor by its hind legs, and, 

 with a slight jerk, drives it into 

 the skin of the caterpillar behind 

 the head ; the egg is instantly de- 

 posited, the ovipositor withdrawn 

 and the ichneumon flies away. 

 The caterpillar, immediately on 

 the conclusion of this operation, remounts the plant on 

 which it had previously been, and begins feeding eagerly, 

 as before ; no difference whatever is to be discovered in its 

 manner, in the quantity of food it consumes, or in the ra- 

 pidity of its growth. 



When the caterpillar has attained its full size, it spins a 

 web among leaves, on the ground, in a bush or against pal- 

 ings, intermixing a considerable quantity of its own hairs ; 

 and in this web it changes to a chrysalis. The egg of the 

 ichneumon is very soon hatched and becomes a white mag- 

 got, without feet, and with very little appearance of head ; 

 it begins eating that part of the flesh of the caterpillar which 

 is immediately in its neighboui'hood, and continues its 

 course towards the tail, devouring all the fat and muscular 

 parts not absolutely essential to motion and Ufe ; and, by 

 the time the caterpillar of the moth is full grown, and 

 becomes a chrysalis, the maggot of the ichneumon is full 

 grown also, and occupies more than half of its interior. It 

 is worthy of remark that this maggot, thus inhabiting for 

 weeks the body of a caterpillar, and devouring its flesh, al- 

 waj^s avoids those parts which are essential to life ; as 

 though aware that the cessation of life in the caterpillar 



