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nourishment. They feed at their pleasure on the grains 

 of -vvhich .he v have been careful to forril their case, and 

 h are he a covering to it. When their metamor- 

 phosis approaches, they abandon, this case ; they nestle 

 in the inner part of a grain, or in the little cavities they 

 dig in the cieiings : these they line with silk, and there 

 transform themseiveb into a chrysalis. 



10. There are few insects which claim so good a right 

 to our admiration as those that are equally skilful with 

 ourselve in making clothes, and that undoubtedly learned 

 the art before us. Like us, they are brought forth 

 naked ; but they no sooner come into the world,' than 

 they set about: clothing themselves. They do not all 

 dress in the same uniform manner, nor do they use the 

 same materials in their clothing. There is perhaps a 

 greater diversity with respect to this in the modes of 

 different species of moths, thaa in those of different 

 people on the earth. -The form of their dress is very 

 convenient: it corresponds exactly with that of their 

 body. It is a lit le cylindrical case, which opens at both 

 ends. The stuff is manufactured by the moth : the 

 ground of it is composed by a mixture of silk and hair : 

 but tlrts would not be soft enough for the insect; it is 

 therefore lined with pure silk. Our woollen furniture 

 and furs supply these moths with the hair they employ 

 in manufacturing their stuffs. They make a careful 

 choice of these hairs, cut them with their teeth, and art- 

 fully incorporate them in the silk tissue. They never 

 change their clothes : those they wore in their infancy, 

 they continue to wear v\hen arrived at maturity. They 

 can then lengthen or widen them as they find conve- 

 nient. They meet with no difficulty in extending them : 

 this they do by only adding new threads and hairs to 

 each end. But the widening them is not so easy a 

 matter : they proceed herein exactly as we do in the 

 like case. They slit the case at the two opposite sides, 

 and skilfully insert tw o pieces of the width required. 

 They do not slit the case from end to the other ; if they 

 did, the sides would start asunder, and be exposecj,: 



