The Life of the Caterpillar 



the gardener's : the moment that provisions 

 are in sight, consumers are forthcoming for 

 the feast. 



The eggs are a bright orange-yellow and 

 do not lack prettiness when examined under 

 the lens. They are blunted cones, ranged side 

 by side on their round base and adorned with 

 finely-scored longitudinal ridges. They are 

 collected in slabs, sometimes on the upper 

 surface, when the leaf that serves as a sup- 

 port is spread wide, sometimes on the lower 

 surface when the leaf is pressed to the next 

 ones. Their number varies considerably. 

 Slabs of a couple of hundred are pretty fre- 

 quent; isolated eggs, or eggs collected in small 

 groups, are, on the contrary, rare. The 

 mother's output is affected by the degree of 

 quietness at the moment of laying. 



The outer circumference of the group is 

 irregularly formed, but the inside presents a 

 certain order. The eggs are here arranged 

 in straight rows backing against one another 

 in such a way that each egg finds a double 

 support in the preceding row. This alter- 

 nation, without being of an irreproachable 

 precision, gives a fairly stable equilibrium to 

 the whole. 



340 



