The Climbing- Instinct 149 



wriggle : weak little orange-yellow beasties, 

 with a triangular black patch upon their 

 sterns. One morning is long enough for the 

 whole family to make its appearance. 



By degrees, the emancipated youngsters 

 climb the nearest twigs, clamber to the top, 

 and spread a few threads. Soon, they gather 

 in a compact, ball-shaped cluster, the size of a 

 walnut. They remain motionless. With their 

 heads plunged into the heap and their sterns 

 projecting, they doze gently, mellowing under 

 the kisses of the sun. Rich in the possession 

 of a thread in their belly as their sole inheritance, 

 they prepare to disperse over the wide world. 



Let us create a disturbance among the 

 globular group by stirring it with a straw. All 

 wake up at once. The cluster softly dilates 

 and spreads, as though set in motion by some 

 centrifugal force ; it becomes a transparent orb 

 wherein thousands and thousands of tiny legs 

 quiver and shake, while threads are extended 

 along the way to be followed. The whole work 

 resolves itself into a delicate veil which swallows 

 up the scattered family. We then see an 

 exquisite nebula against whose opalescent 



