148 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



has fitted into every crack and joint of the insect's 

 body ; and just as a lady's glove, if we could sup- 

 pose it tinted of a flesh-colour, and marked for the 

 various markings on the hand, might be mistaken, 

 if cast down after inflating it with air, for a hand 

 cut off, so, only far more closely, does the cast skin 

 represent, in the minutest particular, the larva 

 which has emerged from it. It is a perfect mould 

 of all its parts, even to the very antennas, eyes, 

 jaws, &c. " Thus," say the authors last quoted, 

 " if you saved the skins cast by the larva of the 

 insect called Cattimorpka 9 6t Arctia Caja, you would 

 appear to have ten different specimens of caterpil- 

 lars, furnished with every external necessary part, 

 and differing only in size and in the colour, per- 

 haps, of the hairs, and all representing the same 

 individual.'* 



In order to show how completely this is the 

 case, some singular experiments have been made 

 by various observers, in the following manner : 

 Just before the larva was about to cast off its skin, 

 they have, by means of a sharp instrument, cut 

 off one or two of its feet. The larva was then 

 allowed to moult, and was carefully examined, and 

 it was invariably found that the feet cut off when 



