FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



such mites. I was quite determined to find out with 

 what materials and in what manner the first outlines 

 of the cap were woven. 



Fortunately the chrysalid bag was far from being 

 empty. I found within the rumpled wrapper a second 

 family as numerous as those already out of the case. 

 Altogether there must have been five or six dozen eggs. 

 I transferred to another place the little Caterpillars who 

 were already dressed, keeping only the naked new-comers 

 in the tube. They had bright red heads ; the rest of their 

 bodies was dirty-white; and they measured hardly a 

 twenty-fifth of an inch in length. 



I had not long to wait. The next day, little by little, 

 singly or in groups, the little laggards left the chrysa- 

 lid bag. They came out without breaking that frail 

 object, through the opening in front made by their 

 mother. Not one of them used it as a dress-material, 

 though it had the delicacy and amber colouring of an 

 onion-skin ; nor did any of them make use of a certain fine 

 quilting that lines the inside of the bag and forms an ex- 

 quisitely soft bed for the eggs. One would have thought 

 this downy stuff would make an excellent blanket for the 

 chilly creatures, but not a single one used it. There 

 would not be enough to go round. 



They all went straight to the coarse outer casing of 

 sticks, which I had left in contact with the chrysalid skin 



[98] 



