INTRODUCTION. 
93 
not long in determining what steps it would be 
necessary to take in order to repair the disaster. 
It almost immediately began to connect the two 
dissevered membranes by means of silk threads, a 
task which it completed in a few minutes, and then 
continued its operations, as if it had experienced no 
material interruption. 
The chiTsalides of butterflies were formerly de- 
scribed as being, with very few exceptions, of an 
angular shape, and suspended either by the tail or a 
band round the middle ; those of moths, however, are 
generally of an oval or elliptical fonn, somewhat 
inclining to conical, and scmcely ever smspended*. 
In a few instances they assiune the figure of an elon- 
gated cone, and in others they approach to cylindiical. 
They have no projections or protuberances on the 
body, but the head is occasionally armed with one or 
two sharp points, and the abdominal segments ivith 
a series of spines directed backwards. The hinder 
extremity is sometimes furnished with a number of 
small hooks, similar to those in butterfly pupa, 
although they are not employed for the same purpose. 
The colour of these pupa is very uniform, being in 
general a deep chestnut-brown, sometimes approach- 
* Among the few instances of suspension afforded by onr 
native species, we may mention, as examples, some of the small 
plumed moths (Alucilidce), and a few Geometers belonging 
io the genus Ephyra, which have their chrysalides attached 
to the under side of leaves, &c. by the tail and middle, nearly 
in the same manner as practised by the caterpillars of the 
white-cabbage butterfly. 
