224 MOTHS AND BUTTERELIES. 



loop to support the fore part of tlie body, but suspend themselves 

 vertically by the hindmost feet. As tliey all secure themselves 

 pretty much in the same way, it may be proper to explain the 

 process. Having finished eating, the caterpillar wanders about till 

 it has discovei'ed a suitable situation in which to pass through its 

 transformations. This may be under the side of a branch or of a 

 leaf or any other horizontal object beneath which it can find suffi- 

 cient room for its future operations. Here it spins a web or tuft of 

 silk, fastening it securely to the surface beneath wliich it is resting, 

 entangles the hooks of its hindmost feet among the threads, and then 

 contracts its body and lets itself drop so as to hang suspended by the 

 hind feet alone, the head and foie part of the body being curved 

 upwards in the form of a hook. After some hours, the skin over the 

 bent part of the body is rent, the fore part of the chrysalis protrudes 

 from the fissure, and, by a wriggling kind of motion, tlie caterpillar 

 skin is stripped backwards till only the extremity of the chrysalis 

 remains attached to it. The chrysalis has now to release itself 

 entirely from the caterpillar skin, which is gathered in folds around 

 its tail, and to make itself fast to tlie silken tuft by the minute hooks 

 with which the hinder extremity is provided. Not having the assist- 

 ance of a transverse loop to support its body while it disengages its 

 tail, the attempt would seem perilous in the extreme, if not impossi- 

 ble. Without having witnessed the operation, we should suppose 

 that the insect would inevitably fall while endeavoring to accom- 

 plish its object. But, although unprovided with ordinary limbs, it is 

 not left without the means to extricate itself fi'om its present diffi- 

 culty. The hinder and tapering part of the chrysalis consists of 

 several rings or segments, so joined together as to be capable of mov- 

 ing from side to side upon each other; and these supply to it the 

 place of hands. By bending together two of these rings near the 

 middle of the bodjs the chrysalis seizes, in the crevice between them, 

 a portion of the empty caterpillar skin, and clings to it so as to sup- 

 port itself while it withdraws its tail fi'om the I'emainder of the skin. 

 It is now wholly out of the skin, to which it hangs sus})ended by nip- 

 ping together the rings of its bodj^; but, as the chrysalis is mucli 

 shorter than the caterpillar, it is yet some distance from the tuft of 

 silk to wliich it must climb before it can fix in it the hooks of its 

 hinder extremity. To do this, it extends the rings of its body as far 

 apart as possible, then, bending together two of them above those by 

 which it is suspended, it catches hold of the skin higlier up, at the 



