Note 3 — Chapter V · ABERRATIONS OF INSTINCT

The Great Peacock3 is the largest Moth of our district. Her caterpillar, which is yellow-hued, with turquoise-blue spots surrounded by black hairs, spins itself, at the foot of the almond-trees, a robust cocoon whose ingenious construction has long been celebrated. At the moment of her deliverance, the Mulberry Bombyx4 has in her stomach a particular solvent which the new-born Moth disgorges against the wall of the cocoon to soften it, to dissolve the gum that sticks the threads together and in this way to force an exit by the mere pressure of her head. With the aid of this reagent, the recluse is able triumphantly to attack her silken prison at the fore-end, the rear-end or the side, as I discover by turning the chrysalis in its cocoon, which I slit with a pair of scissors and then sew up again. Whatever the spot to be perforated for the emergence, a spot which my intervention varies at will, the liquid disgorged promptly soaks into and softens the wall, whereupon the captive, struggling with her fore-limbs and pushing her forehead against the tangle of unstuck threads, makes herself a passage with the same ease as in her natural liberation.