552 
Annual Report of New York 
the straight finger, he can draw it directly out from the hook, or ne 
can bend it together, farther and farther, until it slips out. It is in a 
manner analogous to this latter that the worm slips its head and neck 
out from the girt without any risk of breaking the threads or parting 
them asunder. 
Immediately upon the release of its head it usually bends and brings 
its mouth to one end of the girt, placing numerous short threads there, 
to fasten it more securely. It then strengthens the other end in the 
same manner. And now having nothing more to do, it straightens 
and composes itself to rest. Its body lies quite loose in the girt. 
But it now contracts and soon becomes so thickened as to fill the girt. 
Retaining the same form, color and marks that it has previously had, 
except that it is one-fourtli of an inch shorter, it remains at rest in the 
loop, sometimes only eighteen or twenty but usually thirty hours 
before changing to its pupa form. 
Why does this insect take such care to construct this loop and sub¬ 
ject itself to the arduous labor which its fabrication requires ? It is 
not at all essential that the pupa should be suspended in this manner. 
Quite a number of pupae that were gathered in autumn from the 
under side of the railing of my garden fence, were dropped promis¬ 
cuously into a cup, in which they laid neglected, in doors, through 
the winter, the cup being occasionally inspected and shaken, rolling 
its contents about from side to side. And now, at the end of four 
months, nine butterflies have come from these pupai within the past 
two days, and I judge half of them will hatch. If they had been 
carefully detached and gently laid upon seme dry, soft bedding, with 
their backs downward, without being further disturbed, I make no 
doubt they would all have lived and completed their transformations. 
It thus appears that the loop has no further design than to hold the 
pupa securely in a dry, clean, airy situation. 
When the change to the pupa form approaches, the body becomes 
thicker anteriorly and its color lades to dull yellowish green. The 
breathing pores appear as small black dots, each inclosed in an elliptic 
dull yellow spot; and slightly above them a new mark, a dull white 
line becomes quite distinct, extending from a little forward of the 
loop backward nearly to the tip. Dull pale purplish stains appear 
upon the skin, this color sometimes forming a wavy streak on each 
side of the back of the second and third rings. The second ring 
becomes still more distended by the pressure from within, stretching 
it to double the length of the rings next it on each side. The suture 
between the head and the first rjng is ever and anon put upon the 
