THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 
213 
SO antagonistic as almost to stagger belief, even 
when all the facts have been verified and the 
glorious result is floating before the enraptured 
vision. 
“ In the beginning of this beautiful life there 
is found glued to some limb, or hidden beneath 
a sheltering bark or leaf, a cluster of minute 
eggs. In due time there issues from one of 
these germlets a caterpillar or worm-like crea¬ 
ture, smooth, hairy, or bristled as the species 
may be. This larva is curiously furnished with 
two sets of legs widely differing in form and 
manner of use. One set, always numbering 
six, are placed near the head, and are armed 
with sharp hooks or claws, and are the true 
legs, preserved through all the subsequent 
changes. The other legs are at the anterior 
part of the caterpillar, and vary from two to 
ten in different species. A large space is gen¬ 
erally left between these sets of legs, so that the 
worm in moving alternately uses them, causing a 
bending upward of the body as the anterior pairs 
are brought up to the forward ones. The super¬ 
numerary legs sometimes have a sucker-mouth, 
thus enabling the creature to adhere to smooth 
surfaces with more or less tenacity; but more 
