The Life of the Caterpillar 



done without creating a disturbance, the pro- 

 cession does not alter its ways at all. The 

 second caterpillar, promoted to captain, 

 knows the duties of his rank off-hand: he se- 

 lects and leads, or rather he hesitates and 

 gropes. 



The breaking of the silk ribbon is not very 

 important either. I remove a caterpillar 

 from the middle of the file. With my scis- 

 sors, so as not to cause a commotion in the 

 ranks, I cut the piece of ribbon on which he 

 stood and clear away every thread of it. As 

 a result of this breach, the procession ac- 

 quires two marching leaders, each independent 

 of the other. It may be that the one in the 

 rear joins the file ahead of him, from which 

 he is separated by but a slender interval; in 

 that case, things return to their original con- 

 dition. More frequently, the two parts do not 

 become reunited. In that case, we have two 

 distinct processions, each of which wanders 

 where it pleases and diverges from the other. 

 Nevertheless, both will be able to return to 

 the nest by discovering sooner or later, in the 

 course of their peregrinations, the ribbon on 

 the other side of the break. 



These two experiments are only moderately 

 68 



