STATES OF INSECTS. (Pupa.) 281 
tire?.. Yet Reaumur’s correctness cannot be suspected: 
and he affirms, that from observation there can scarcely 
be a doubt that most of the threads are broken: which 
is further confirmed in an account of the breeding of si’k- 
worms published in the American Philosophical Trans- 
actions ; in which it is expressly stated, that cocoons out 
of which the fly has escaped, cannot be wound‘. Ana- 
logy, it must be confessed, is against Reaumur’s opinion; 
since other kinds of silkworms make their escape by 
means of a fluid. Thus we are informed by Dr. Rox- 
burgh, that dttacus Paphia, when prepared to assume 
the imago, discharges from its mouth a large quantity of 
liquid, with which the upper end of the case is so per- 
fectly softened, as to enable the moth to work its way 
out in a yéry short space of time,—an operation which, 
he says, is always performed in the night4. Perhaps the 
two opinions may be reconciled, by supposing the silk- 
worm first to moisten and then break the threads of its 
cocoon. In those that are of a slighter texture, a mere 
push against the moistened end is probably sufficient: 
and hence we find in so many newly disclosed moths the 
hair in that part wet, and closely pressed down’. If it 
be apparently difficult for the silkworm-moth to effect an 
opening in its cocoon, how much harder must seem the 
task of the puss-moth (Cerwra Vinula) to pierce the so- 
lid walls of its wood-thickened case? Here the eyes are 
clearly incompetent; nor could any ordinary fluid assist 
their operation, for the gum which unites the ligneous 
particles is indissoluble in agueous menstrua. You begin 
* Trans. of the Society of Arts, vii, 131. 
» Reaum. udi supr. Silk pue: 4d Linn, Trans. vii. 35. 
© Pezold. 171. 
