State Agricultural Society. 
553 
stretch, and in its upper part a slender silvery line is at times visible; 
and subsequently the skin here parts asunder and the glossy green 
surface of the pupa becomes perceptible in this cleft, which opens 
when the parts are put upon the stretch and closes when the pressure 
beneath relaxes. 
And now all forward of the' loop becomes strongly pressed upon 
from within and is much distorted and its color changed to very dark 
purplish, dingy and livid. This steady, strong pressure from within 
continues ten or fifteen minutes. At length the skin on top of the 
second ring suddenly parts asunder its whole length and the glossy 
surface of the pupa is crowded strongly upward in this elliptic open¬ 
ing. At the same time the top of the head opens apart; and at this 
moment there is a strong constriction forming a narrow belt around 
the neck; but with the outward pressure before and behind it, 
this first ring now parts asunder, and the whole anterior part of the 
pupa rises out of the opened larva skin, which slips downward from 
off this fore end of the pupa, the edge of the old skin at this moment 
extending from the back a little forward of the loop, diagonally for¬ 
ward and downward upon each side. The skin is next to he slipped 
backward out of the loop. This is accomplished by the pupa con¬ 
tracting and elongating its body a few times and simultaneously 
wriggling itself from side to side. These motions crowd the very 
thin film of skin rapidly backward, out from the loop and onward 
toward the tip. Back of the loop the pupa bulges out as it is 
released, little by little, from the constriction of the larva skin, and 
this abrupt enlargement pushes against and aids to crowd the skin 
backward, step by step, each time the pupa elongates itself. It is 
principally by a vermicular motion, a succession of contractions and 
elongations, that the abdomen of the pupa appears to crawl out from 
the larva skin, the process resembling an earth worm ( Lumbricus) 
crawling out from its hole in the ground. The skin as it is crowded 
back becomes wrinkled into little plaits and folds. It is pushed back 
farther and farther, until it finally forms a crumpled soft gray mass 
of thin membrane and hairs around the tip of the body. 
The last act of this metamorphosis is very curious. The pupa is 
held only by the loop around its middle and the tip of its body 
imbedded in the crumpled larva skin which remains fastened to the 
little hillock of threads by the hooks which belonged to the hind feet. 
The pupa now, by contracting, draws the end of its body out of the 
crumpled mass of skin, and is thereupon held in place by the loop 
alone. Its body ends in a pair of soft pincers, and it is wonderful to 
[Ac..] VO 
