THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 341 



for an exit was williout doubt the work of the instinct-guided 

 caterpillar ilself, long, long ago, and certainly without the 

 slightest conception of the remote contingency of its being 

 required hereafter as a means of escape, and ultimately of 

 procreation and oviposition, — duties not to be performed in 

 the interior of its ordinary dwelling-place. 



Towards the end of June the time for the final change 

 arrives, and the chrysalis forces its head and shoulders 

 through the weak place in the bark ; the component parts of 

 its shell or case then separate, and about three o'clock in 

 the afternoon the moth crawls upwards for ten or fifteen 

 inches, and then rests, with its crunipled wings hanging 

 down, until they have expanded, assumed their ultimate 

 form and consistency, and are fitted for those very short 

 excursions that the now mature insect is required by nature 

 to accomplish. 



A very familiar-looking Ichneumon is parasitic on the 

 larva of the goat-moth, and attacks it in all stages of its 

 growth, causing various speculations by the result. Trifling 

 deviations from the ordinary mode of pursuing the path of 

 life are much more interesting in insects than in ourselves : 

 insects follow the leader as a matter of course ; we only do 

 so when it answers our purpose : insects are proud of fol- 

 lowing the leader ; we do so by stealth and often with con- 

 fusion of face, and we don't like to be found out : insects are 

 in this respect much more consistent in their general conduct 

 than we are. It is on this very ground that, when an insect 

 deviates from its ordinary course, we like to know the why 

 and the wherefore ; in fact we want to be told all about it. 

 Now, there are occasionally to be met with small cocoons of 

 Xyleutes Cossus, indeed so small that entomologists in 

 general will not believe them to be the cocoons of Cossus at 

 all, and suppose them to be those of some undiscovered 

 species of Sesia, a trifle less perhaps than Apiformis and 

 Bembeciformis, and a trifle larger than Tipuliformis and 

 Myopa^formis. Under this idea the little cocoons are 

 cherished, but perversely refuse to produce moths, being 

 always infested by a red-legged Ichneumon, the familiar and 

 odoriferous Lampronota setosa. This fact still adds to their 

 value and to the mystery ; for everyone wants to know what 

 undiscovered lepidopteron always turns to a red-legged 



