DEUDOBIXIN^. 67 



But it will be at once asked, what necessity could there be for the caterpillars to 

 secure the fruit from falling after each has bored a hole, and thus made its escape ? 

 This question is answered by the curious circumstance that, after so securing the fruit, 

 the caterpillars return again into the pomegranate, in the hollow interior of which they 

 undergo their transformations to the chrysalis state. Here, too, we may notice another 

 interesting fact, namely, that the insect has the precautionary instinct, which acts as a 

 second inducement, to make the aperture in the fruit in that stage of its existence in 

 which it is furnished with organs best adapted for the purpose ; for, had the larva 

 omitted taking this step, the consequences would have been that the insect, when come 

 to its butterfly state, would have been a prisoner totally unable to escape, being 

 unprovided with any instrument sufficiently powerful to make a hole in the shell. The 

 chrysalides are attached horizontally upon the inner walls of the pomegranate by means, 

 first, of a patch of silk laid upon its surface, to the centre of which the tail of the 

 chrysalis is attached, and second, of a slender silken thread passing from side to side 

 over the base of the abdominal segments. 



Another curious instance of instinct yet remains to be noticed. The butterfly, as 

 soon as ever it has escaped from the puparium, must make its escape out of the hole 

 formed by the larva. Delay would be death, as the wings would soon acquire their 

 full expansion of nearly a couple of inches, in which state it would, of course, be unable 

 to creep out. 



In the chrysalis state the belly of the insect is placed in contact with the inner 

 surface of the fruit ; consequently as the slit by which the butterfly escapes out of the 

 puparium extends along the back, the under surface of the latter remains entire, the 

 anterior lateral portions on each side of the slit (extending as far as the whole covering 

 of the wings) curling up and lying close upon those parts which have covered the 

 breast and limbs, leaving the abdominal portion in the same form as when it enclosed 

 the insect. (Westwood.) 



At the time the pomegranate is in flower, and at a very early period, the Hair 

 Streak may be seen very busily occupied about the flowers, and I have little doubt that 

 the eggs are deposited at the bottom of the calyx, from the position in which I have 

 seen the abdomen of the butterfly placed ; as the fruit enlarges, the eggs are enclosed, 

 and in this situation matured. 



EecoUecting the history of this insect, I determined to enjoy the pleasure of 

 seeing it go through its various stages (the pomegranate tree being close to my door). 

 In order that I might obtain a perfect insect, I surrounded several of the fruit with 

 fine gauze, but in such a manner as not in the least to interfere with the caterpillar in 

 its labour of connecting the fruit and stalk by means of the web, but, to my astonish- 

 ment and disappointment, this never took place ; the caterpillars issued from the fruit, 

 and, finding their escape impeded, underwent their change on the external part, and so 



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