. The book of butterflies, sphinges, and moths; illustrated by one hundred and forty-four engravings, coloured after nature. Lepidoptera. ] 46 THE SILKWORM MOTH. firm and consistent yellow ball; the labour always, of course, remaining within the sphere of the cone which it is forming. If at any time the threads intended for the sup- port of the cocoon should be broken, the ball not being properly poised, becomes unsteady, so that the insect is unable perfectly to go forward with its labours. Under these circumstances, the worm pierces a hole in, and altogether abandons the un- finished cocoons
. The book of butterflies, sphinges, and moths; illustrated by one hundred and forty-four engravings, coloured after nature. Lepidoptera. ] 46 THE SILKWORM MOTH. firm and consistent yellow ball; the labour always, of course, remaining within the sphere of the cone which it is forming. If at any time the threads intended for the sup- port of the cocoon should be broken, the ball not being properly poised, becomes unsteady, so that the insect is unable perfectly to go forward with its labours. Under these circumstances, the worm pierces a hole in, and altogether abandons the un- finished cocoons, and throws out its remaining threads at random wherever it passes, by which means the silk is wholly lost, and the caterpillar, finding no place wherein to prepare for its change, dies without having effected it. At the end of the third or fourth day, the worm generally completes its task, and has formed its cocoon, which, in size and shape, is like that of a pigeon's egg. It is, however, but seldom that it attains so large a size. The following figure repre- sents the cocoon upwards of two-thirds the usual size, with part of the floss silk removed:. The operation of spinning, and the emission of so large a quantity of silk, uncompensated by Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Brown, Thomas, 1785-1862. London, Whittaker & Co. ; [etc. ,etc. ]
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License: Licensed
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Keywords: ., bookauthorbrownthomas17851862, bookcentury1800, booksubjectlepid
