LEPIDOPTERA. 169 
thick; as they grow, little by little they spread themselves out 
and become curled up. When they are completely developed and 
flattened, the wings become firm and hard imperceptibly, and this 
firmness extends at the same time to the whole of the body. 
Figs. 131 and 182, borrowed, like the preceding, from the 14th 
ence of Réaumur (sur la transformation des chrysalides en 

Fig. 181.—Moth whose wings are developing. Fig. 132.—Moth whose wings are developed. 
papillons), show the states through which the wings of the same 
-moth pass, before they are ‘nerouehly developed. 
Those pupz enclosed in cocoons free themselves entirely or or in 
part from their old skin, in the shell itself; but the imago is still 
a prisoner. It has broken through a first enclosure; it must 
open itself a way through the second. How does it manage to 
bore through the often very solid walls of this second prison, so 
as to regain its liberty? Réaumur stated that in the Lackey 
Moth (Bombyx neustria) the head is the only instrument of which 
the insect makes use in opening a passage, the compound eyes 
then acting like files. These files cut the very fine threads of 
which the cocoon is composed, and as soon as the end of the 
cocoon is pierced through, the insect uses its thorax like a wedge, 
to enlarge the hole. It very soon manages to get its two front 
legs out, fixes itself by them on to the outside, and little by little 
emerges from its prison. 
Tue Perrecr Insect. 
Who does not admire the extraordinary splendour, the vivacity, 
the prodigious variety of colours of these brilliant inhabitants of 
