300 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



long oval, pointed at the upper end. It is double, the outer 

 coat being wrinkled, and resembling strong brown paper in 

 color and thickness ; when this tough outer coat is cut open, 

 the inside will be seen to be lined with a quantity of loose 

 yeUow-brovvn strong silk, surrounding an inner oval cocoon, 

 composed of the same kind of silk, and closely woven like that 

 of the silk-worm. The insect remains in the chrysalis form 

 through the winter. The moth, which comes forth in the fol- 

 lowing summer, would not be able to pierce the inner cocoon, 

 were it not for the fluid provided for the purpose of softening 

 the threads ; but it easily forces its way through the outer 

 cocoon at the small end, which is more loosely woven than 

 elsewhere, and the threads of which converge again, by their 

 own elasticity, so as almost entirely to close the opening after 

 the insect has escaped. 



A few brown and curled leaves may frequently be seen 

 hanging upon sassafras-trees during the winter, when all the 

 other leaves have fallen off. If one of these leaves is exam- 

 ined, it will be found to be retained by a quantity of silken 

 thread, which is wound or woolded round the twig to the dis- 

 tance of half an inch or more on each side of the leaf-stalk, 

 and is thence carried downwards around the stalk to an oval 

 cocoon, that is wrapped up by the sides of the leaf. The 

 cocoon itself is about an inch long, of a regular oval shape, 

 and is double, like that of the Cecropia caterpillar, but the 

 outer coat is not loose and wrinkled, and the space between 

 the outer and inner coats is small and does not contain much 

 floss silk. So strong is the coating of silk that surrounds the 

 leaf-stalk, and connects the cocoon with the branch, that it 

 cannot be severed without great foi-ce; and consequently the 

 chrysalis swings securely within its leaf-covered hammock 

 through all the storms of winter. Cocoons of the same kind 

 are sometimes found suspended to the twigs of the wild cherry- 

 tree, the Azalea, or swamp-pink, and the Cephalanthus, or 

 button-bush, but not so often as on the sassafras-tree. Two of 

 them, hanging close together on one twig, were once brought 

 to me, and a male and a female moth were produced from 

 these twin cocoons in July, the usual time for these insects to 



