mortal coil

[…] [A black swallowtail] does not—as a true insect does—change from worm to grub, and from grub to his mature form, but simply “shuffles off his mortal coil,”—skin, hairs, and leggings all complete, now and then, […] . He then leaves his shuffled-off “mortal coil” hanging upon a fragment of dirty cobweb, as before described.