224 
NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN 
winds itself in a silken cocoon and rests from its 
hazardous journey. How tired and sleepy it is! 
Food is not necessary now. Utterly relaxed and 
motionless it lies for days on end, simply waiting 
for Time to work its way with it. In about three 
weeks Nature triumphs; the skin of the hard lit¬ 
tle brown object, not more than half an inch long, 
into which the worm has been turned, now splits 
down the back, and out comes the full-grown 
moth from its pupa case. As Riley puts it, its 
wings are 4 still damp with the imprint of the 
great stereotyping establishment of the Al¬ 
mighty,’ but they are soon dried. And once the 
crumples are fully shaken out, the moths soar 
madly away to test their power. They soon find 
their mates and swirl about in a gay honeymoon 
which is as brief as it is rapturous. 
44 Mrs. Codling-moth is a decidedly plain-look¬ 
ing little person, with a wing expanse of about 
three-quarters of an inch. The bridegroom is a 
trifle smaller, and both of them are so nearly the 
color of the apple-tree trunk that it takes a good 
eye to note them against it, so long as they re¬ 
main motionless. The young of these codling- 
moths hatch about the first of July. Of course, 
it is too late to think of getting into the apple 
pantries by way of the door in the calyx grove. 
This is now tightly locked and double-locked. 
But the little thieves must get in, and they lose 
