6 POPULAR ENTOMOLOGY. 



by the tail, or horizontally by a band round the middle, the 

 operations of the caterpillar vary accordingly. When the 

 chrysalis is to be suspended by the tail, the first step is to 

 cover a portion of the surface to which it is to be attached, 

 with a layer of silken threads, so as to form a little reversed 

 cone ; into this the animal pushes its hinder pair of prolegs, 

 which are entangled by means of the small hooks of the 

 foot ; the anterior part of the body is then allowed to hang 

 with the head downwards ; soon after, it begins to bend the 

 head up, retaining this position for some time, then permit- 

 ting the head to fall again. This movement it continues 

 for some hours, till the skin rends in the back, and the 

 chrysalis appears ; by degrees the skin dries, and is pushed 

 towards the tail. Now the difficult task remains of extri- 

 r^cating itself from the skin, which is its only support, and 

 attaching itself to the silken threads, which are considerably 

 above. In order to accomplish this, it seizes on a portion 

 of the skin between two segments of the body, holding it 

 as with a pair of pincers, and thus supports itself till it 

 draws the tail from its sheath ; it then takes hold of another 

 piece, by elongating the rings of the tail, and repeating this 

 till the extremity touches the silk, to which it adheres by a 

 number of little hooks with which it is provided. " These 



