USES OF SILK TO INSECTS. 



11 



when the insect has completed the term of its ex- 

 istence and becomes a chrysalis, it suspends itself 

 by silken cords to some fixed point, where it remains 

 in complete repose, without food, 

 perhaps for months before the 

 perfect winged insect bursts forth, 

 as different a creature from the 

 caterpillar as the chrysalis is from 

 either, and yet these are but 

 three different states of existence 

 of the same insect. 



According to the particular 

 species of caterpillar, the silk 

 will vary in strength and fineness, and also in 

 colour, but seldom will it be found strong enough, 

 or in sufficient quantity to be of use to us. The 

 insects themselves employ it in many ways for 

 their own safety and shelter. How common it is 

 to find some of the leaves of a lilac-tree made up 

 into little rolls, or folded together at their edges, 

 where they stick so fast that it requires some little 

 force to pull them asunder. This is the work of a 

 small caterpillar, whose subsistence is found on 



HRYSALIS SUSPENDED 

 BY SILKEN CORDS 



