110 INSECT LIFE 



VIII 



occupied by the unknown mystery of transformation, 

 and to come to the nymph, go from the end of 

 September to the first days of the following July. 

 The larva has thrown aside its faded vestment, and 

 the chrysalis, a transitory organisation, or rather, a 

 perfect insect in swaddling bands, awaits motionless 

 the awakening which is still a month off. Feet, 

 antennae, the visible portions of the mouth, and the 

 undeveloped wings, look like clearest crystal, and are 

 regularly spread out under the thorax and abdomen. 

 The rest of the body is of an opaque white, slightly 

 tinged with yellow ; the four intermediary segments 

 of the abdomen show on either side a narrow, blunt 

 prolongation ; the last segment has above a blade- 

 like termination, shaped like the section of a circle, 

 furnished below with two conical protuberances, side 

 by side, thus making in all eleven appendages 

 starring the contour of the abdomen. Such is the 

 delicate creature which, to become a Sphex, must 

 assume a particoloured livery of black and red, and 

 throw off the fine skin which swaddles it so closely. 

 I have been curious to follow day by day the 

 progress and coloration of the chrysalid, and to ex- 

 periment whether sunlight — that rich palette whence 

 Nature draws her colours — could influence their pro- 

 gress. With this aim I have taken chrysalids out 

 of their cocoon and kept them in glass tubes, where 

 some, in complete darkness, realised natural con- 

 ditions, while others, hung up against a white wall, 

 were all day long in a strong light. These dia- 

 metrically opposed conditions did not affect the 

 colouring, or if there were some slight difference, it 

 was to the disadvantage of those exposed to light. 



