The Life of the Caterpillar 



tual pressure; they are stuck close together, 

 so much so that they cannot be separated. If 

 force Is used, the layer comes off the leaf 

 in fragments, in small cakes always consisting 

 of several eggs apiece. The beads laid are 

 therefore fastened together by a glutinous 

 varnish; and it is on this varnish that the 

 broad base of the defensive scales is fixed. 



It would be interesting, if a favourable 

 opportunity occurred, to see how the mother 

 achieves that beautifully regular arrangement 

 of the eggs and also how, as soon as she has 

 laid one, all sticky with varnish, she makes a 

 roof for It with a few scales removed one 

 by one from her hind-quarters. For the 

 moment, the very structure of the finished 

 work tells us the course of the procedure. It 

 is evident that the eggs are not laid In longi- 

 tudinal files, but in circular rows, in rings, 

 which lie one above the other, alternating 

 their grains. The laying begins at the bot- 

 tom, near the lower end of the double pine- 

 leaf; it finishes at the top. The first eggs in 

 order of date are those of the bottom ring; 

 the last are those of the top ring. The ar- 

 rangement of the scales, all in a longitudinal 

 direction and attached by the end facing the 



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