HOME-GROWN SILKWORM-GUT 221 



ner by himself into a glass receptacle with a few 

 leaves, and watch proceedings. 



After satisfying itself that it has selected a suit- 

 able place, the caterpillar firmly grasps a twig with 

 the false legs or props, and with the true legs on the 

 forward part of the body pulls the ends or sides of 

 leaves together. Then the head moves up and 

 down, back and forth, a film of sticky silk meanwhile 

 gripping the leaves and holding them together. 

 The worm works industriously, and soon the gen- 

 eral outline and size of the cocoon appear, half- 

 hidden in the leaves. In a few hours the caterpillar 

 has spun sufficiently to hide itself from sight. If 

 you wait a week or so and then carefully open the 

 end of the cocoon, you will see an interesting sight; 

 in place of the caterpillar, which was the last living 

 thing observed in the cocoon at the beginning of the 

 spinning process, a brownish pupa is seen, being a 

 sort of case containing the embryonic organs of the 

 future moth. Most of the cocoon, inside of the 

 closely-woven exterior, will be a mass of fluffy silk- 

 filaments surrounding a hard inner case, apparently 

 lined with some compact, gum-like substance and 

 containing besides the pupa the cast-off skin, now 

 shriveled, brown, and crowded out of the way into 

 the back of the cocoon. 



Of course you will want to draw the gut from most 

 of the worms which you have raised. The first im- 

 portant matter is to know the right time for the 



