88 THE AMERICAN SILK WORM. 
now resembles an Egyptian mummy. If before the shell 
of the pupa has become hard, an antenna, a leg or a wing 
be changed from the position that the insect has given to 
it, that part of the body which would otherwise have been 
covered by the part removed out of place, will remain of 
a different color and of a thinner consistence, and an insect 
thus treated will not generally live to arrive at the imago 
state. 
Before the last transformation is accomplished, the insect 
takes a long rest, and this period is the longest of its life ; if 
it can be called an existence to live without eating, breath- 
ing, or even, probably, without having any distinct sen- 
sation. The pupa spends about nine months in this tor- 
por, and braves the hardships of winter, notwithstanding 
all the changes of the temperature, being frozen as hard 
as a stone. It is only when the warm spring days come 
that life awakens, and the pupa is transformed into a 
insect. 
w a worm be opened longitudinally, even when half 
grown, there will be found in the female a vast num- 
ber of little globular white bodies attached to a fine tube 
on each side of the stomach. These little bodies are the 
eggs of the future female moth, as yet in a rudiment- 
ary state. This is the only method of distinguishing the 
female from the male, while in the larva state. I have 
never Peeni able to find any other character: by which to pS 
