INTRODUCTION. 93 



not long in determining what steps it would be 

 necessary to take in order to repair the disaster. 

 It almost immediately began to connect the two 

 dissevered membranes by means of silk threads, a 

 task which it completed in a few minutes, and then 

 continued its operations, as if it had experienced no 

 material interruption. 



The chrysalides of butterflies were formerly de- 

 scribed as being, with very few exceptions, of an 

 angular shape, and suspended either by the tail or a 

 band round the middle ; those of moths, however, are 

 generally of an oval or elliptical form, somewhat 

 inclining to conical, and scarcely ever suspended*. 

 In a few instances they assume the figure of an elon- 

 gated cone, and in others they approach to cylindrical. 

 They have no projections or protuberances on the 

 body, but the head is occasionally armed with one or 

 two sharp points, and the abdominal segments with 

 a series of spines directed backwards. The hinder 

 extremity is sometimes furnished with a number of 

 small hooks, similar to those in butterfly pupae, 

 although they are not employed for the same purpose, 

 fhe colour of these pupae is very uniform, being in 

 general a deep chestnut-brown, sometimes approach - 



* Among the few instances of suspension afforded by our 

 native species, we may mention, as examples, some of the small 

 plumed moths (Alucitula), and a few Geometers belonging 

 to the genus Ephyra, which have their chrysalides attached 

 to the under side of leaves, &c. by the tail and middle, nearly 

 in the same manner as practised by the caterpillars of the 

 white-cabbage butterfly. 



