STATES OF INSECTS. (Lgg.) 75 
single row end to end, stops it up with a green frothy 
fluid mixed with the small pieces of leaf detached by her 
saws, which when dry becomes friable : a necessary pre- 
caution, since these eggs are extremely brittle*. Arctza 
chrysorhaea, Hypogymna dispar, and several other moths, 
surround theirs with an equally impervious and more 
singular clothing—/air stripped from their own bodies, 
With this material, which they pluck by means of their 
pincer-like ovipositor, they first form a soft couch on the 
surface of some leaf: they then place upon it successively 
layers of eggs, and surround them with a similar downy 
coating, and when the whole number is deposited cover 
the surface with a roof of hairs, which cannot be too 
much admired; for those used for the interior of the 
nest are placed without order, but those employed ex- 
ternally are arranged with as much art and skill as the 
tiles of a roof, and as effectually keep out the water, one 
layer resting partly on the other, and all having the same 
direction, so that the whole resembles a well-brushed 
piece of shaggy cloth or fur. When the mother has 
finished this labour, which often occupies her for twenty- 
four hours, and sometimes even twice that period, her 
body, which before was extremely hairy, is almost wholly 
naked—she has stripped herself to supply clothing to 
her offspring, and having performed this last duty she 
expires. The female moths which thus protect their eggs 
are often furnished with an extraordinary quantity of hair 
about the anus for this express purpose ; and Reaumur 
conjectures, that the singular anal patch of scales resem- 
bling those of the wings, but considerably larger, which 
2 De Geer ii. 982. 
