The Life of the Caterpillar 



ter dwelling, which has become too closely 

 cramped. They reassemble in groups and 

 weave, here, there and everywhere, shapeless 

 tents, temporary huts, abandoned for others 

 as the pasturage round about becomes ex- 

 hausted. The denuded boughs, to all seem- 

 ing ravaged by fire, take on the look of 

 squalid drying-grounds hung with rags. 



In June, having acquired their full growth, 

 the caterpillars leave the arbutus-tree, descend 

 to earth and spin themselves, amid the dead 

 leaves, a niggardly cocoon, in which the in- 

 sect's hairs to some extent supplement its silk. 

 A month later, the Bombyx appears. 



In his final dimensions, the caterpillar mea- 

 sures nearly an inch and a quarter in length. 

 His costume does not lack richness or origin- 

 ality: a black skin with a double row of 

 orange specks on the back; long grey hairs 

 arranged in bunches; short, snow-white tufts 

 on the sides; and a couple of brown-velvet 

 protuberances on the first two rings of the ab- 

 domen and also on the last ring but one. 



The most remarkable feature, however, 



consists of two tiny craters, always open wide : 



two cunningly fashioned goblets which might 



have been wrought from a drop of red seal- 



156 



