50 THE MICROSCOPE AND ITS LESSONS. 



formed, is to be) ; then a pupa or mummy > which it very 

 much resembles ; and lastly, an imago, that is, a perfect 

 image or representation of the creature, 



First, let us examine the eggs of the Yapourer a 

 common moth, whose care for her young may teach many 

 a mother a lesson ; for, out of the warm pupa-case 

 from which she has escaped so recently, she contrives to 

 make a silken bed for her young. Here they are ; look 

 at them. Could you have conceived such perfection ? 

 Observe how they are fastened to each other in neat and 

 orderly fashion. " This custom of fastening the eggs to 

 the web in a constant method is so peculiar to this 

 species of insect, that I have never observed it in any 

 other kind; like a prudent housewife she never leaves 

 her habitation, but is always fixing her eggs to the 

 surface of the web, out of which only a few days since 

 she made her escape." * 



No doubt this is to keep them warm in winter ; and it 

 is suggested that, the bed being made of silk, its non-con- 

 ducting property, both with regard to heat and electricity, 

 must be of great benefit to the concealed embryo in the 

 egg, in preserving it during the winter, in the branch of 

 the tree where it may have been deposited. 



Now look at the baby larva with its six legs, with 

 which you may have seen it feel its way as it fastens on 

 to the tree on which it feeds with the other ten. Observe, 

 the fore legs are altogether different to the hind legs (also 

 called claspers) ; one minute booklet terminates each of 

 the former, and about fifty each the latter. This enables 

 the creature to hold on securely while it feels its way 

 from leaf to leaf. But look at the forest of hairs, which 

 cover its body, bristling up like an armoury of spears; and 

 there at the mouth, is the opening of the spinning-machine 

 * Swammerdam, quoted by Kenuie. 



