Tin: CANADIAN IIORTU'ULIX UlST. 



ONE OF OUE COMMON INSECTS, 



BY W, SAUNDP]KS, LONDON, ONT. 



Most of our readers will recognize in the acoompaiiyiiig cut, Fig. 1, 

 an object with which they are more or less familiar, although they may 

 know little of its origin or the nature of its contenta 



During tlie Winter 

 months, when our trees 

 and shruljs are leaHess 

 these curious silky 

 structures are readily 

 seen, and are found on 

 many different trees 

 and shrubs, but per- 

 haps oftener on the 

 twigs of apple trees and 

 currant bushes than 

 anywhere elsa They 

 are the cocoons of a very 

 large and beautiful 

 moth, called the Cecro- 

 pia moth, ( Avtacu^^ 

 4Jecropia,) which thus 

 spends the winter in a 

 quiet and torpid con- 

 dition. 



If you cut a twig on 

 which one of these coc- 

 oons has been hung, and 

 shake it, you will feel 

 that it contains a heavy 

 body which is to some 

 extent moveable, and 



you can feel a slight dull 

 thud as it falls from side 

 to sida This winter 

 home of the insect is 

 about three inches long, 

 shaped something like 

 a pod, tapering towards 

 each end, and invariably 

 fastened lengthwise to 

 the twig. It is of a dirty 

 brown colour; the ex- 

 terior is very close and 

 japery like, although 

 jiuch wrinkled, and is 

 juite impervious to wet 

 Let us look inside of it; 

 underneath the close 

 exterior we find a mass 

 of loosely woven threads 

 of strong yellow silk 

 which surround the 

 dark l)rown chrysalis 

 and fill the intervening 

 space, the uj)per end of 

 the cocoon where the 

 moth is eventually to 

 make its escape, being 



Fig. 1. 



much looser in texture than the other portions. The crysalis itself, the 

 object of all this care, is smooth, of a dull brown colour, and about one 

 and a half inches long, and f of an inch broad in the widest portion. 



