224 
MOTHS AND BUTTERELIES. 
loop to support the fore part of the body, but suspend themselves 
vertically by the hindmost feet. As they all secure themselves 
pretty much in the same way, it may be proper to explain the 
process. Having finished eating, the caterpillar wanders about till 
it has discovered a suitable situation in which to pass through its 
transformations. This may he under the side of a branch or of a 
leaf or any other horizontal object beneath which it can find suffi¬ 
cient room for its future operations. Here it spins a web or tuft of 
silk, fastening it securely to the surface beneath which it is resting, 
entangles the hooks of its hindmost feet among the threads, and then 
contracts its body and lets itself drop so as to hang suspended by the 
hind feet alone, the head and fore part of the body being curved 
upwards in the form of a hook. After some hours, the skin over the 
bent part of the body is rent, the fore part of the chrysalis protrudes 
from the fissure, and, by a wriggling kind of motion, the caterpillar 
skin is stripped backwards till only the extremity of the chrysalis 
remains attached to it. The chrysalis has now to release itself 
entirely from the caterpillar skin, which is gathered in folds around 
its tail, and to make itself fast to the silken tuft by the minute hooks 
with which the hinder extremity is provided. Not having the assist¬ 
ance of a transverse loop to support its body while it disengages its 
tail, the attempt would seem perilous in the extreme, if not impossi¬ 
ble. Without having witnessed the operation, we should suppose 
that the insect would inevitably fall while endeavoring to accom¬ 
plish its object. But, although unprovided with ordinary limbs, it is 
not left without the means to extricate itself from its present diffi¬ 
culty. The hinder and tapering part of the chrysalis consists of 
several rings or segments, so joined together as to be capable of mov¬ 
ing from side to side upon each other; and these supply to it the 
place of hands. By bending together two of these rings near the 
middle of the body, the chrysalis seizes, in the crevice between them, 
a portion of the empty caterpillar skin, and clings to it so as to sup¬ 
port itself while it withdraws its tail from the remainder of the skin. 
It is now wholly out of the skin, to which it hangs suspended by nip¬ 
ping together the rings of its body; but, as the chrysalis is much 
shorter than the caterpillar, it is yet some distance from the tuft of 
silk to which it must climb before it can fix in it the hooks of its 
hinder extremhy. To do this, it extends the rings of its body as far 
apart as possible, then, bending together two of them above those by 
which it is suspended, it catches hold of the skin higher up, at the 
