The Psyches: the Laying 



with eggs behind. Underneath the first seg- 

 ments is a sort of neck-band, that is to say, 

 a dark stain, the vestige of a crop showing 

 through the skin. A pad of short down ends 

 the oviferous part at the back. It is all that 

 remains of a fleece, of a thin velvet which 

 the insect rubs off as it moves backwards and 

 forwards in its narrow lodging. This forms 

 the flaky mass which whitens the trysting- 

 window at the wedding-time and also lines 

 the inside of the sheath with down. In 

 short, the creature is little more than a bag 

 swollen with eggs for the best part of its 

 length. I know nothing lower in the scale of 

 wretchedness. 



The germ-bag moves, but not, of course, 

 with those vestiges of legs which form too 

 short and feeble supports; it gets about in a 

 way that allows it to progress on its back, 

 belly or side indifferently. A groove is hol- 

 lowed out at the hinder end of the bag, a 

 deep, dividing groove which cuts the insect 

 into two. It runs to the front part, spreading 

 like a wave, and gently and slowly reaches 

 the head. This undulation constitutes a step. 

 When it is done, the animal has advanced 

 about a twenty-fifth part of an inch. 



209 



