FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



the case. These scraps or pellets are sometimes placed 

 at the top, sometimes at the bottom or side, but they are 

 always fixed at the fore-edge. No device could be better 

 contrived than this garland, first laid out flat and then 

 buckled like a belt round the body. 



Once this start is made the weaving goes on well. 

 Gradually the girdle grows into a scarf, a waistcoat, a 

 short jacket, and lastly a sack, and in a few hours it is 

 complete a conical hood or cloak of magnificent white- 

 ness. 



Thanks to his mother's care the little grub is spared 

 the perils of roaming about in a state of nakedness. If 

 she did not place her family in her old case they might 

 have great difficulty in clothing themselves, for straws 

 and stalks rich in pith are not found everywhere. And 

 yet, unless they died of exposure, it appears that sooner 

 or later they would find some kind of garment, since 

 they seem ready to use any material that comes to hand. 

 I have made many experiments with new-born grubs 

 in a glass tube. 



From the stalks of a sort of dandelion they scraped, 

 without the least hesitation, a superb white pith, and 

 made it into a delicious white cloak, much finer than 

 any they would have obtained from the remains of their 

 mother's clothes. An even better garment was woven 

 from some pith taken from the kitchen-broom. This 



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