The sloughing goes on for a day and a night, beginning with the head
and ending with the tail. During the sloughing of the skin an inner
layer comes to the surface, for the creature emerges just as the
embryo from its afterbirth.
All insects that slough at all slough in the same way; as the
silphe, and the empis or midge, and all the coleoptera, as for
instance the cantharus-beetle. They all slough after the period of
development; for just as the afterbirth breaks from off the young of
the vivipara so the outer husk breaks off from around the young of the
vermipara, in the same way both with the bee and the grasshopper.
The cicada the moment after issuing from the husk goes and sits upon
an olive tree or a reed; after the breaking up of the husk the
creature issues out, leaving a little moisture behind, and after a
short interval flies up into the air and sets a. chirping.
Of marine animals the crawfish and the lobster slough sometimes in
the spring, and sometimes in autumn after parturition. Lobsters have
been caught occasionally with the parts about the thorax soft, from
the shell having there peeled off, and the lower parts hard, from
the shell having not yet peeled off there; for, by the way, they do
not slough in the same manner as the serpent.
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