10 THE PITCHER PLANT 



in and out without the least difficulty and lays her 

 eggs on the inside of the open lip, in free defiance of 

 its array of concealed weapons. When the young 

 larvae come out they feed on the inner lining of their 

 Pitcher, working around with a delicacy and care 

 that suggests a knowledge of their imminent danger. 

 They eat away a ring of the inner surface, clearing 

 off the dangerous spines that would throw them down 

 into the water, and all the time spinning a carpet of 

 silk to afford themselves a secure footing. After a 

 while the weakened lip shrivels and collapses, thus 

 making a comfortable habitation in which the young 

 moths sleep through the pupa stage of their existence. 

 They then emerge from the shrunken covering to seek 

 in other Pitchers a home for the next generation. 

 There is also an insect of the Hymenoptera order 

 that makes a home in this charnel-house of her 

 relatives. This enticing death-trap is found to be 

 hospitable to at least three visitors from the insect 

 world. Perhaps it is this natural blending of what 

 we call good and what we call evil that awakens the 

 deep human interest in the cluster of curved, open 

 Pitchers nestling in the moss and trailing a few 

 roots down to the unseen water. 



