66 FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



and one at the back. The front one, which is the more 

 regular and carefully made, is permanently closed by being 

 fastened to the support on which the chrysalis is fixed ; so 

 the Moth, when he is hatched, is obliged to come out by 

 the opening at the back. The Caterpillar turns round inside 

 the case before he changes into a Moth. 



Though they wear but a simple pearl-grey dress and have 

 insignificant wings, hardly larger than those of a Common 

 Fly, these little male Moths are graceful enough. They have 

 handsome feathery plumes for antennae, and their wings 

 are edged with delicate fringes. For the appearance of the 

 female Psyche, however, little can be said. 



Some days later than the others she comes out of the 

 sheath, and shows herself in all her wretchedness. Call that 

 little fright a Moth ! One cannot easily get used to the 

 idea of so miserable a sight : as a Caterpillar she was no 

 worse to look at. There are no wings, none at all ; there is 

 no silky fur either. At the tip of her round, tufty body she 

 wears a crown of dirty- white velvet ; on each segment, in 

 the middle of the back, is a large, rectangular, dark patch 

 her sole attempts at ornament. The mother Psyche re- 

 nounces all the beauty which her name of Moth seems to 

 promise. 



As she leaves her chrysalid sheath she lays her eggs within 

 it, thus bequeathing the maternal cottage (or the maternal 

 garments, if you will) to her heirs. As she lays a great many 

 eggs the affair takes some thirty hours. When the laying is 

 finished she closes the door and makes everything safe against 

 invasion. For this purpose some kind of wadding is required. 

 The fond mother makes use of the only ornament which, in 

 her extreme poverty, she possesses. She wedges the door 

 with the coronet of velvet which she carries at the tip of her 

 body. 



Finally she does even more than this. She makes a 

 rampart of her body itself. With a convulsive movement 

 she dies on the threshold of her recent home, her cast chrysalid 



