86 



The Naturalist. 



its invincible tower, and the result is a cardboard-box bespattered 

 prison; place it in a drinking glass, and the result is a similarly 

 coloured transparency ; or place it on the trunk of a poplar tree, and 

 it requires an experienced and discerning eye to detect it ; and so 

 hard is the cocoon that it is with considerable difficulty that a knife 

 or sharp instrument can remove it. The substance with which it 

 encloses itself seems to be inexhaustible, and the larva never abates 

 its energies until the reservoirs of production have gradually disap- 

 peared. Like Dr. Kenealy, " He never will be persuaded to hold 

 his tongue, until Old Time has worn that indefatigable member of 

 loquacity to the roots." I believe the shape and construction of the 

 future imago is formed in the insect, even in its primary larval condi- 

 tion : time having perfected what food and activity could not accom- 

 plish. The puss larva at this period adopts a fasting policy and 

 awaits fretfully for a future transition. The chrysalis (or pupa, -or 

 aurelia) is rather actively inclined, of a dark brown black shade, and 

 in other respects similar to the usual run of pup^. The food which 

 it has obtained hitherto is by this time perfectly digested, and all 

 excreta are absorbed in the intestinal tubes. It resides in the cocoon 

 until the following year, when the moth appears about May, June, or 

 the beginning of July. On emerging from the chrysalis, the imago is 

 covered with a beautiful woolly snow-white clothing, which gradually 

 {misere meo) disappears and leaves the moth Bm'anura Vinula him or 

 herself. How strange that the hard, impenetrable, buckhorn exterior of 

 the casing should succumb to the sieges of a little moth's mouth-liquid 

 battery ! But so it is ! Pussy, who easily entombed herself with a ten- 

 barred door, as easily removes it. No ordinary safe is Yinula's. Without 

 any of Chubb's 30-chambered locks she lets herself out by the action 

 of her mouth. What a grand discovery for burglars ! Now she 

 ap[»ears in all her poor grandeur of perfect symmetry. I say " poor " 

 and use the term advisedly, for " born to death " is the funeral note 

 rung in her ears, but after having a final taste of pleasure, pleasure 

 dearly bought, but honestly ; after settling her worldly affairs she 

 disappears for ever, leaving but her name and example for those who 

 come after to imitate. It is a pity that so fine an English moth 

 should be equally difficult to preserve, but so it is, and as yet it can- 

 not be effectually remedied. Acids, stuffing, turpentine, all are of no 

 avail, the infernal grease will ooze out, and soon poor pussy is a black 

 mass. 



