90 



TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 



throws back its head, and twists it sideways, so as to touch 

 the wood on one side of the body. The touch pulls out a 

 silken thread, and then the insect carries the head to the other 

 side, and fixes the silk. This is repeated several times, until a 

 sort of sling is placed over the body. Then the first metamor- 

 phosis takes place, and the chrysalis finds itself slung by the 

 tail, and girded to the wood-work by a silken sling. 



The first step to cocoon making, which is so usual in the 

 next division of the Lepidopiera, is shown in the habit that 



CATERPILLARS OF THE CABBAGE BUTTERFLY SLINGING THEMSELVES BEFORE THE 



FIRST METAMORPHOSIS. 



Pamphila aracyntlms has of swathing itself with a network of 

 silk before undergoing the first metamorphosis, and the leaf- 

 rolling propensities of many caterpillars and moths are fore- 

 shadowed by a species of SyricJitits. 



The angular shape of the butterfly chrysalides may have 

 something to do with their comparatively unprotected and 

 uncovered state, for this sharpness of outline which causes 

 them to differ in appearance from most living things is not so 

 perfectly seen in the case of the Anthocharis, from Spain, which 

 spins a slight cocoon. 



It has already been stated that the repeated sheddings of the 

 skin and mucous (epithelial) tissues of the caterpillars during 



