42 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



caterpillar, and is called an ovipositor ; the outer 

 ones seem to serve as protectors to this ovi- 

 positor, and not to be used for piercing the 

 caterpillar. 



128. When the caterpillar can fall no further, 

 it frequently unfolds itself, and writhes about to 

 dislodge its enemy ; but its struggles are useless : 

 the ichneumon elevates its body in a kind of 

 arch, bending the ovipositor forward beneath it 

 nearly to its mouth ; it then steadies the ovi- 

 positor by its hind legs, and, with a slight jerk, 

 drives it into the skin of the caterpillar behind 

 its head ; the egg is instantly deposited, the ovi- 

 positor withdrawn, and the ichneumon flies away. 



129. The caterpillar, immediately on the con- 

 clusion of this operation, remounts the plant on 

 which it had previously been, and begins feeding 

 eagerly as before ; no difference whatever is to be 

 discovered in its manner, in the quantity of food 

 it consumes, or in the rapidity of its growth. 



130. When the caterpillar has attained its full 

 size, it spins a web among leaves, on the ground, 

 in a bush, or against palings, intermixing a con- 

 siderable quantity of its own hairs ; and in this 

 web it becomes a chrysalis. 



131. The egg of the ichneumon is very soon 

 hatched, and becomes a white maggot, without feet 

 and with very little appearance of head ; it begins 

 eating that part of the flesh of the caterpillar which 

 is immediately in its neighbourhood, and continues 



