The Larva and the Nymph 95 



unfinished net, hastily woven to serve as a 

 builder's scaffolding, is made of threads flung 

 out at random, which hold together grains of 

 sand, bits of earth and the leavings of the 

 larva's feast : the Cricket's thighs, still braided 

 with red, his shanks and pieces of his skull. 

 The next covering, which is the first covering 

 of the cocoon proper, consists of a much- 

 creased felted tunic, light-red in colour, very 

 fine and very flexible. A few threads flung 

 out here and there join it to the previous 

 scaffolding and to the second wrapper. It 

 forms a cylindrical wallet, closed on every side 

 and too large for its contents, thus causing the 

 surface to wrinkle. 



Next comes an elastic sheath, distinctly 

 smaller than the wallet that contains it, almost 

 cylindrical, rounded at the upper end, towards 

 which the larva's head is turned, and finishing 

 in a blunt cone at the lower end. Its colour 

 is still light-red, save towards the cone at the 

 bottom, where the shade is darker. Its con- 

 sistency is pretty firm ; nevertheless, it yields 

 to moderate squeezing, except in its conical 

 part, which resists the pressure of the fingers 

 and seems to contain a hard substance. On 

 opening this sheath, we see that it is formed 

 of two layers closely applied one to the other, 

 but easily separated. The outer layer is a silk 



