THE rSYCHIDM. II9 



tube which is still open. It then becomes transformed into the 

 chrysalis. In a few weeks' time the moth escapes from its prison 

 if it is a male, but if it is a female she still stops at home, being 

 none the less attractive, however, to her admirers. She lays 

 her eggs inside the old house and dies. No young caterpillars 

 should have a greater respect for their mother than those which 

 are born after a time in the old house where she died, for she 

 built the house, carried it about with her exposed to number- 

 less dangers, repaired it, and was married in it. But these little 

 thoughtless things not only are ungrateful, but unfeeling, for the 

 first thing they do is to set to work to eat up their mother's 

 body, which they perform very completely, for they only leave 

 the hard parts behind. After having done this they quit the old 

 home and wander about the world. This cannibalism is almost 



THE CHRYSALIS AND THE FEMALE PERFECT INSECT OF Psyche grarninella. 



but not quite an exceptional proceeding in the Lepidoptcra. In 

 the spring-time and in early summer the caterpillar of Psyche 

 grammella may be seen wandering about over the grasses, brooms, 

 heaths, and sometimes upon walls, and it is very visible, for its 

 tube is often nearly an inch long. It is made up of little pieces 

 of leaves all cut to about the same size and placed one within 

 the other like flounces, and its front part has one or two rows of 

 pieces of wood or of sprigs of plants placed longways upon it. 

 These pieces come from the caterpillar's favourite plants. The 

 caterpillar never has but one tube, which it enlarges from time 

 to time by making a slit in it with its jaws. The margins of the 

 slit open, and a piece made up of silk and vegetable matter is 

 stuffed into it. Every time that the larva enlarges its house 

 it repeats this manoeuvre. The caterpillar is of a pale grey 

 colour, and its head and its three thoracic segments are of a 

 reddish-brown and are marked with black lines and dots. It 

 is no beauty; but what is the use of being dressed up when 

 one lives in the dark ? 



