302 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
inside of the pomegranate, on the seeds and pulp of which it feeds. The 
fruit being thus rendered weak and unable to support its own weight would 
be liable to have its stalk broken and to fall to the ground with the first 
wind and there rot, in which state it would most probably be destructive 
to the inclosed larvze. To obviate this evil, the caterpillars when full fed 
haye the remarkable instinct to gnaw a hole about a quarter of an inch in 
diameter through the hard shell of the fruit while it still remains on the 
tree, and issuing through this hole to spin in common (as it would seem) 
a silken web attached both to the stalk and the base of the fruit, and suf- 
ficiently strong to support the pomegranate from falling in the event of the 
stalk being broken by the wind; and having thus secured the stability of 
their chamber, they retire again into it, and there undergo their metamor- 
phosis, the butterflies while their wings are still unexpanded creeping out 
of the hole above mentioned, which thus serves a second important pur- 
pose in their economy, of allowing them a free passage in their perfect 
state through the hard shell of the pomegranate, which, if this door in it 
had not previously been provided by the caterpillar with its jaws, would 
have proved a fatal prison to the butterfly, which has no such instru- 
ments. 
The most remarkable insects, however, that arrange under this class of 
imperfect associates, are those that observe a particular order of march. 
Though they move without beat of drum, they maintain as much regularity 
in their step as a file of soldiers. It is a most agreeable sight, says one of 
Nature’s most favoured admirers, Bonnet, to see several hundreds of the 
larvae of Clisiocampa neustria marching after each other, some in straight 
lines, others in curves of various inflection, resembling, from their fiery 
colour, a moving cord of gold stretched upon a silken riband of the purest 
white; this riband is the carpeted causeway that leads to their leafy pasture 
from their nest. Equally amusing is the progress of another moth, the 
Pityocampa, before noticed; they march together from their common 
citadel, consisting of pine leaves united and inwoven with the silk which 
they spin, in a single line ; in following each other they describe a mul- 
titude of graceful curves of varying figure, thus forming a series of living 
wreaths, which change their shape every moment:—all move with a 
uniform pace, no one pressing too forward or loitering behind ; when the 
first stops, all stop, each defiling in exact military order.? 
A still more singular and pleasing spectacle, when their regiments march 
out to forage, is exhibited by the caterpillars of the Processionary moth 
(Cnethocampa processionea). This moth, which is a native of France, and 
has not yet been found inthis country, inhabits the oak. Each family consists 
of from 600 to 800 individuals. When young, they have no fixed habita- 
tion, but encamp sometimes in one place and sometimes in another, under 
the shelter of their web: but when they have attained two-thirds of their 
growth, they weave for themselves a common tent, before described. 
About sunset the regiment leaves its quarters ; or, to make the metaphor 
harmonise with the trivial name of the animal, the monks their coenobium. 
At their head is a chief, by whose movements their procession is regulated. 
When he stops, all stop, and proceed when he proceeds; three or four of 
1 Westwood in Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. ii. 1. tab. 1. The Mexican butterfly 
(Lucheira socialis Westw.), previously noticed, is also (as its name implies) social in 
its larva state. 
2 Bonnet, ii. 57. 
