210 Microscopical Essays. 



fkin, and how it will be enabled to fix itfelf to the hillock, 

 as it has neither arms nor legs. A little attention foon explains 

 the operation, and extricates the obferver from his embarraffment. 

 It feizes the exuvia by the rings of the body, and thus holds it- 

 felf as it were by a pair of pincers ; then, by bending the tail, it 

 frees itfelf from the old fkin, and by the fame method foon fuf- 

 pends itfelf to the filken mount j it lengthens out the hinder part 

 of the body, and clafps, by means of it's rings, the various fold- 

 ings of the exuvia one after another ; thus creeping backward on 

 the fpoils, till it can reach the hillock with the tail ; which, when 

 examined by the microfcope, will be found to be furnifhed with 

 hooks to fix itfelf by. 



It is furprizing to fee with what exa£lnefs and eafe thefe infers 

 perform an operation fo delicate and dangerous, which is only 

 executed once in their life ; and nought elfe can account for it,, 

 but the consideration that he, who defigned that the caterpillar 

 fhould pafs through thefe changes, had provided means for that 

 end, regularly connecting the greater fteps by intermediate ones, 

 the defire of extending their fpecies, forming and acting upon the 

 organization, till the purpofes of their life are completed. 



Different kinds of thefe infe&s require variety in the mode of 

 fufpenfion • fome fix themfelves in an horizontal pofition, by a 

 girdle which they tie round their body ; this girdle appears to the 

 naked eye as a fingle thread ; when examined with the micro- 

 fcope, it will be found to be an affemblage of fine threads, lying 

 clofe to each other, fo fixed as to fupport the caterpillar, and yet 

 leave it in full freedom to effe& the changes. Like the preceding, 

 kind, it fixes the girdle to the branch of a tree ; in this fituation 

 6 fc 



