158 



THE INSECT WOELD. 



on all sides in its hair, which is to serve it in the construction of 

 its cocoo*n. 



Fig. 116. Larva of Cheloniacaja. 



Another species uses its hairs in the composition of its cocoon ; 

 but it adopts an entirely peculiar way of tearing them out, when 



the tissue of its cocoon has become 

 a species of network of pretty 

 closely packed rings. Reaumur 

 one day saw one part of the 

 cocoon bristling with hairs. These 

 were the hairs of a part of the 

 back of the caterpillar, which it 

 had pushed through the rings of 

 its cocoon. The caterpillar then 

 moved about as if rubbing this 

 part of its back successively in 

 opposite directions against the 

 interior surface of the cocoon. In this way the hairs were very 

 soon torn out and kept retained in the rings of the cocoon. This 

 cocoon is then bristly inside, and does not at all suit the future 

 chrysalis, which does not like to be touched by any but smooth 

 surfaces. The caterpillar then works with its head, to lay the 

 hairs along the interior surface, and to keep them down by threads, 

 which it draws over them. At another time Reaumur saw a small 

 hairy caterpillar, which appeared to live on lichens, using its hair 

 in another way. It tore them out to make its cocoon, but it 

 was not to lay them down and work them into a tissue. It set 

 them straight up like the stakes of palisades, on the circumference 

 of an oval space, in which it was placed. Shut up within this pali- 

 sade, it spun a light white web. This web supports the hairs, 



fit 



Fig. 117. Larva of Chelonia caja forming 

 its cocoon. 



