4 PAPILIO MAOHAON. 



extended — throws back its head, and in this way 

 swells out its breast like that of a pouter pigeon, 

 leaving a deep hollow between the mouth and the first 

 pair of thoracic legs ; then it bends to one side of the 

 stem and spins a broadish attachment for the first 

 thread of the cincture, and presently with a slow and 

 deliberate motion sweeps round as before to the other 

 side, the head all the while wagging as the silk issues 

 from the spinneret and is guided along the hollow above 

 mentioned. As the head approaches the other side the 

 body swells out still more, as though to stretch the 

 thread and give it the necessary curvature. As on 

 commencing the thread, so now on fastening it to the 

 other side, there is delay for a little and the fastening 

 seems to be made with a more liquid and glutinous 

 quality of silk than the rest of the thread. The first 

 thread thus completed, the larva proceeds in the same 

 slow and methodical manner, spinning some thirty 

 threads from right to left, and as many from left to 

 right, or sixty altogether for the cincture, the time 

 thus occupied being about one hour and forty-five 

 minutes ; occasionally the first pair of thoracic legs 

 seem to be made use of to assist at the fastening of 

 the ends of the threads. When enough threads have 

 been spun the larva seems to test their strength by 

 pulling them quite taut with its projecting breast, two 

 or three times, and then, apparently satisfied, it bends 

 down its head to put it under the cincture, and creeps 

 up inside it till it hangs loosely round its back between 

 the sixth and seventh segments ; next it seems to 

 relieve itself by stretching upward all the front seg- 

 ments that had been so engaged during the spinning, 

 and in a few minutes settles into a quiet posture, with 

 head bent down and legs brought close to the stem. 



Thus it rests, and meanwhile the segments of the 

 body shorten and their divisions deepen ; the head 

 becomes bent down close to the stem, while the body is 

 held away from it as far as the cincture allows, drawn 

 tight as it is into the deep division between the sixth 



