Some time after each molt, perhaps the time needed to regain lost 

 strength and to solidify the newl3^-formed organs, the worm remains 

 in a state of relative torpor. Not much practice is needed to recognize 

 when it has come out of its "sleep." It moves its head and thorax, 

 which are whitish, while the rest of the body is gvay, and has com- 

 pletely lost the shining aspect which it had when the worm began to 

 molt. When fairly through its first molt the larva begins again to eat, 

 and its hunger does not cease until it is ready for a new molt. 



Four molts having been made, the worm eats a prodigious quantity of 

 leaf until it reaches its maximum growth, when its appetite diminishes 

 and ceases altogether. It then stops moving and remains for some 

 time in repose, evacuating, meanwhile, its digestive canal, thus losing 

 up to 13 per cent of its weight. Its lean body is now white or yellow, 

 according to the race, and semitransparent. 



Very soon it begins to move about again, lifts up its head, which is 

 longer and more pointed, and turns in ever}^ direction seeking to find 

 a convenient angle, finding which, it throws out a silk thread from its 

 spinneret. First a net is formed to hold the cocoon which is to be 

 spun, then the regular spinning begins and the form of the cocoon is 

 designed. For some time through the veil which very soon is to sur- 

 round it, the diligent larva, with its back turned outward, may be seen 

 completing its task. It is calculated that with its head alone the silk- 

 worm makes 69 movements everj^ minute, describing arcs of circles, 

 crossed in the form of the figure 8 (fig. 3, a). 



Meanwhile the web grows closer and the veil thickens, and in about 

 seventy-two hours the worm is completely shut up in its cocoon, which 

 serves it as a protective covering. 



THE CHRYSALIS. 



In the cocoon the silkworm goes through the last phase of its larval 

 life. After four or five days the skin breaks, and the insect which 



Fig. 3. — The chrysalis: a, silkworm completing its .cocoon; b, cocoon and chrysalis — cast-off skin of 

 larva beneath; c, back view of chrysalis; d, side view of chrysalis. (Redrawn from Maillot.) 



issues from this old covering is the chrj^salis, whose weight is often 

 only half that of the larva at its highest development (fig. 3) 



165 



