The Cabbage-caterpillar 



Perhaps the worms take one another's places 

 at the point attacked and come by turns to 

 work at it with a kiss. 



In one short spell, the whole tribe issues 

 through this single opening and is soon 

 wriggling about, perched on the surface of 

 the caterpillar. The lens cannot perceive the 

 hole, which closes on the instant. There is 

 not even a haemorrhage: the bottle has been 

 drained too thoroughly. You must press it 

 between your fingers to squeeze out a few 

 drops of moisture and thus discover the spot 

 of exit. 



Around the caterpillar, who is not always 

 quite dead and who sometimes even goes on 

 weaving his carpet a moment longer, the ver- 

 min at once begin to work at their cocoons. 

 The straw-coloured thread, drawn from the 

 silk-glands by a backward jerk of the head, 

 is first fixed to the white network of the cater- 

 pillar and then produces adjacent warp-beams, 

 so that, by mutual entanglements, the in- 

 dividual works are welded together and form 

 an agglomeration in which each of the worms 

 has its own cabin. For the moment, what is 

 woven is not the real cocoon, but a general 

 scaffolding which \\\\\ facilitate the construc- 



361 



