9 



lives in companionship with its fellows, and when cocoon -making 

 time comes, they work side by side, interlacing their silken threads 

 until they lie hidden in a colony as you see them here. 



Others like this specimen from Africa, first weave a bag of silk, 

 then go inside to envelop themselves singly with a separate cocoon. 

 This bag is full of them. 



Another species is of a more military order. Its members never 

 take their walks alone or in pairs, but always in line, one leading 

 the rest, even if hundreds are following and so closely that they 

 look like a long length of coloured cord along the ground or upon 

 a tree, a most remarkable sight of gregarious habit. 



I brought some home last year from the woods of Monte Carlo, 

 and one evening I went to my greenhouse and found them on their 

 slow march exactly in a straight line, in single file, nose to tail, 

 along the top of the hot water pipes. In the Riviera you may see 

 hundreds of their bulbous cobwebby bunches in the fir trees ; these 

 are their hiding places. They rest in them in the day and come 

 out at night to feed upon the firs. These white bunches are their 

 houses of silk, tied from all points to the fir branches Some of 

 them are larger than footballs. The insect is known by the name 

 of Bombyx, or more properly, Cnethocampa processionea. Its silk 

 has not been turned to any profitable account, but it could be used 

 for spinning ; it could not be reeled like the cocoon of the Bombyx 

 Mori. 



There is a caterpillar in Demerara whose legs only go half the 

 length of his body ; he goes about like a snail with his house on 

 his hinder parts, the leg portion of his body for crawling, the 

 legless part carrying his cocoon. 



But I should weary you if I attempted to recount a hundredth 

 part of the list up to date I have brought here. 



With the multitudinous variety of moths you are well acquainted, 

 with their enchanting shapes and colours, and with their pretty 

 patterned wings, so I will content myself with showing you a few 

 of the more important and interesting species on the screen at the 

 conclusion of my paper. 



Silk is also produced by many species of spiders, also by the 

 larvae of the Ichneumem flies. On the table is an interesting 

 collection of these flies whose larvye have laid their eggs in the 



