The Processionary : Meteorology 



Or else I touch one or other of these un- 

 covered protuberances, very delicately, with 

 a bit of straw. The pimple affected imme- 

 diately contracts, draws into itself, like the 

 horns of the Snail, and is replaced by a ga- 

 ping mouth, which in its turn closes. Usually, 

 but not always, the segment excited by the 

 contact of my straw is imitated by the others, 

 both front and back, which close their ap- 

 paratus one by one. 



When undisturbed and in repose, the cater- 

 pillar generally has his dorsal slits expanded; 

 in moving, he sometimes opens and sometimes 

 closes them. In either case expansion and 

 contraction are frequently repeated. Con- 

 stantly coming together and retreating under 

 the skin, the lips of the mouth-like opening 

 therefore end by losing their brittle mous- 

 taches of russet hairs, which break off. In this 

 way a sort of dust collects at the bottom of 

 the crater, a dust formed of broken hairs, 

 which, thanks to their barbs, soon collect into 

 little tufts. When the slit expands rather sud- 

 denly, the central projection shoots out on 

 the insect's sides its load of hairy remnants, 

 which the least breath blows into a cloud of 

 golden atoms highly disagreeable to the ob- 



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