ATTACUS ATLAS: A LIFE-HISTORY. 35 
so would not be able to get through its moult, not being able to 
leave the slough behind, as every one knows. 
With a lens in one hand, and a fine feather-point wetted in the 
other, I patiently removed the grains, one by one, avoiding any 
violence to the tender body. The grains adhering to the under- 
parts, which would be most injurious, were hardest to be got at. 
At length, however, I pretty well got rid of all, and placed the 
little worm on a horizontal leaf. The power of clasping with the 
pro-legs was, however, so feeble, that the least movement made 
the worm roll over sidewise; and I feared to leave itthus. Then 
I bethought myself of the following device: I cut off a flat willow- 
leaf, and laid it, face-downward, on the sand; the midrib forming 
a slender projecting ridge. Against this I gently placed the little 
worm, and had the pleasure of seeing that presently the pro-legs 
had taken hold of the midrib, while the flat position of the leaf 
prevented the danger of rolling over. After a quarter of an hour, 
I perceived that the clasp was firm; and now I could gently lift 
the leaf, and turn it over in the air, the worm being below, without 
any relaxation of its hold. My care, however, proved vain; for 
the worm died where it was put, without being able to accomplish 
its moult. 
Several now died in rapid succession. Wishing to preserve 
specimens in this age for my cabinet, and their minuteness 
precluding the hope of inflating the emptied skin, I took one or 
two of the dead worms as they were, and simply gummed them on 
acard. A day or two afterwards I perceived one of these bodies 
very much changed in appearance. Examination by a lens 
showed that the body was greatly eaten, the fragments lying 
strewn about; and by its side a loose cocoon, containing a white 
pellucid larva, about half as long as the little Atlas caterpillar. 
It was certainly lepidopterous; very nimble, much like that of a 
Tortriz or a Tinea: it had manifestly been parasitic in the Atlas. 
This contretemps gave me a new glimpse of the perils to which 
my pets were exposed. 
But some passed happily through their first moult. One of 
these I was so fortunate as to detect at the beginning, and watched 
to its completion. The process is familiar to all silkworm 
breeders, and needs not to be recorded anew. What seems 
noteworthy is, that the tubercles were (not only as they were 
successively uncovered, but even after the process was completed) 
