It will now be seen that the moth when it leaves its chrysalid case can easily walk out of the cocoon, but that no other creature could enter. So within its trapped case the chrysalis lies secure, until time and warmth bring it to its perfection. It breaks from its pupal shell, walks forward, the threads separate to permit its egress, and then converge again so closely that to all appearance the cocoon is precisely the same as when the moth was within.
Now, any observant member of the human race, who had been meditating upon traps, and happened in a contemplative mood to open one of these cocoons, would feel a new light break in upon him, and, Archimedes-like, he would exclaim “Eureka,” or its equivalent, “I have found my trap!” Reverse the process, make the converging threads to lead into instead of out of the trap, and the thing is done. “I will make it of wire, put it on my shelf, and I catch mice and rats. I will make it of osier, sink it to the bottom of the sea, and I catch lobsters and crabs. I will lay it in a rapid, and I catch roach and dace; I will place it under the river banks, and then I have cray-fish.”
So might he soliloquise on the future achievements of his newly-discovered principle. But unless he had the prophetic afflatus strong within him, never would he imagine that in future times his discovery would catch a monarch and an Elector to boot.
CHAPTER VII.
ELEPHANT HAWK-MOTH—PRIVET HAWK-MOTH—DIGGING FOR LARVÆ—BUFF-TIPP MOTH—GOLD-TAILED MOTH—CASE FOR ITS EGGS—CURIOUS PROPERTY OF ITS CATERPILLAR-VAPOURER MOTH—LEAF-ROLLERS—GREEN-OAK MOTH—ITS CONSTANT ENEMY—LEAF-MINERS—LACKEY MOTH—EGG BRACELETS.
It will be noticed that the insects mentioned in the preceding chapter are mostly remarkable for the cocoons which they construct, and that the peculiarities of the larva and the perfect insect are but casually mentioned. Those, however, which will be noticed in this chapter are chosen because there is “something rare and strange” in the habits and manners of the creatures themselves.
As it will be more convenient to keep to the same plate as much as possible, we still refer to [plate G]. On casting the eye over the objects there depicted, the strangest and most fantastic shape is evidently that creature which is marked 5 a.
The aspect of the creature is almost appalling, and it seems to glare at us with two malignant eyes, threatening the poisoned blow which the horrid tail seems well able to deliver.