CHAPTER IV 



THE PINE PROCESSIONARY : METEOROLOGY 



IN JANUARY a second moult occurs, 

 leaving the caterpillar less fair to the eye, 

 while at the same time endowing him with 

 some very peculiar organs. When the mo- 

 ment has come to shed their skins, the Pro- 

 cessionaries cluster higgledy-piggledy on the 

 dome of the nest and there, if the weather 

 be mild, remain motionless day and night. It 

 would seem as though the fact of their con- 

 tact, of their mutual discomfort, while thus 

 heaped together, furnishes a resistance, a ful- 

 crum, which favours the process of excoriation. 

 After this second moult, the hairs on the 

 middle of the back are of a dull reddish 

 colour, which is made paler still by the inter- 

 position of numerous long white hairs. But 

 this faded costume is accompanied by the 

 singular organs which attracted the attention 

 of Reaumur, who was greatly perplexed as 

 to their function. In the place originally oc- 

 cupied by the scarlet mosaic, eight segments 

 of the caterpillar are now cleft by a broad 



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