When the worm molts it ceases eating, grows slightly lighter in color, fastens itself firmly by the ten prolegs, and especially by the last two, to some object, and holding up its head and the fore part of its body remains in a torpid state for nearly two days. By each successive molt the worm grows lighter, finally becoming a slate or cream white color, and the hair, which was long at first, gradually disappears. The gummy liquid which combines the two strands hardens immediately on exposure to the air. The worm works incessantly, forcing the silk out by the contraction of its body. The thin, gauze-like network which soon surrounds it gradually thickens, until, twenty-four hours after beginning to spin, the worm is nearly hidden from view. However, the cocoon is not completed for about three days. ~SIXTY-FIVE MOTIONS OF HIS HEAD A MINUTE~ The cocoon is tough, strong, and compact, composed of a firm, continuous thread, which is, however, not wound in concentric circles, but irregularly in short figure eight loops, first in one place and then in another. In doing this the worm makes sixty-five elliptical motions of his head a minute or a total of 300,000 in an average cocoon. The motion of the worm’s head when starting the cocoon is very rapid, and nine to twelve inches of silk flow from the spinneret in a minute, but later the average would be about half this amount per minute. [Illustration: SILKWORM EATING.[2]] [Illustration: SILKWORM—ONE OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST WORKERS SILKWORM PREPARING TO FORM ITS COCOON.] Having attained full growth, the worm is ready to spin its cocoon. It loses its appetite, shrinks nearly an inch in length, grows nearly transparent, often acquiring a pinkish hue, becomes restless, seeks a quiet place or corner, and moves its head from side to side in an effort to find objects on which to attach its guy lines within which to build its cocoon. The silk is elaborated in a semi-fluid condition in two long, convoluted vessels or glands between the prolegs and head, one upon each side of the alimentary canal. As these vessels approach the head they grow more slender, and finally unite within the spinneret, a small double orifice below the mouth, from which the silk issues in a glutinous state and apparently in a single thread. [Illustration: COCOON BEGUN--SILKWORM CAN STILL BE SEEN.] The color of the worm’s prolegs before spinning indicates the color the cocoon will be. This varies in different species, and may be a silvery white, cream, yellow, lemon, or green. [Illustration: COMPLETED COCOON.] ~WHEN THE SILKWORM’S WORK IS DONE~