of our pursuit were
66
cabbage," peacock," or
"tortoise-shell." Peter Pindar's clever but sar-

castic description of the exploits of Sir Joseph
Banks, in his mad career after the Emperor of
Morocco, is by no means a very exaggerated pic-
ture of the doings of many an enthusiastic collec-
tor, with a glittering prize in view; and we ques-
tion whether the coldest among them would hesitate
to follow the example of the worthy knight, with
a shadow of a chance of capturing the Purple Em-

peror.

out exterior mouth, eyes, or limbs, and exhibiting no other symptom of life than a slight motion when touched. In this state of death-like stupor, and without tasting food, the insect existed for several months, until at length the tomb burst, and out of a case not more than an inch long, and a quarter of an inch in diameter, proceeded the butterfly before you, which covers a surface of nearly four inches square.-(Introd., i. 60.)

Witnessing, as they doubtless did, these extraordinary changes without being able to account for them physiologically, it is quite possible, as Most persons, at some time or other, have kept silkworms, and are consequently pretty well acKirby has suggested, that "some of the wonderquainted with the changes they undergo in their ful tales of the ancients were grafted on the changes which they observed to take place in inprogress from the egg to the perfect winged condition. To those who have not had this opportusects." The story of the phoenix, for example, in nity of practically gaining a knowledge of the many of its particulars, closely resembles varieconomy of the butterfly tribe, the following pas-At first a worm, emerging from the ashes of its ous occurrences in the metamorphoses of insects. sages from Kirby and Spence will, in a great measure, supply the information.

That butterfly which amuses you with its acrial excursions, one while extracting nectar from the tube of the honeysuckle, and then, the very image of fickleness, flying to a rose, as if to contrast the hue of its wings with that of the flower on which it reposes-did not come into the world as you now behold it. At its first exclusion from the egg, and for some months of its existence afterwards, it was a worm-like caterpillar, crawling upon sixteen short legs, greedily devouring leaves with two jaws, and seeing by means of twelve eyes so minute as to be nearly imperceptible without the aid of a microscope. You now view it furnished with wings capable of rapid and extensive flights; of its sixteen feet ten have disappeared, and the remaining six are in most respects wholly unlike those to which they have succeeded; its jaws have vanished, and are replaced by a curled-up proboscis, suited only for sipping liquid sweets; the form of its head is entirely changed, two long horns project from its upper surface; and, instead of twelve invisible eyes, you behold two, very large, and composed of at least 20,000 convex lenses, each supposed to be a distinct and effective eye.

parent's funeral pile, and eventually a glorious winged creature, providing in the means of its own destruction the nidus of its future and unseen

progeny; the fabled phoenix might assuredly have acquired its type from the actual butterfly, without any great stretch of imagination. Then again the doctrine of metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls, would, to the minds of the early observers, be shadowed forth in the apparent revivification of the seemingly dead chrysalis. But the doctrine of a future life, more glorious than that of transmigration, also derived support and countenance from the same remarkable vicissitudes of insect life. In the words of Mr. Newman

What can be more wonderful than the fact that an unsightly worm should pass through a shrouded and death-like sleep, and should wake at last a glorious butterfly, to bask in sunshine, float on the impalpable atmosphere, and quaff the luscious nectar of beauteous flowers! Well might such a miracle be made a poet's theme! Well might those philosophers, on whose mind there dawned, albeit dimly, the great truth of an after life-well might they imagine their toilsome existence typified in the caterpillar, their descent to the quiet grave in the tomb-like repose of the chrysalis, and the hereafter they sighed for in the spirit-like resurrection of the happy butterfly; and seizing with avidity the idea, well might they designate these aerial creatures by the name of "souls!"*—(Newman, P. 73.)

Were you to push your examination further, and by dissection to compare the internal conformation of the caterpillar with that of the butterfly, you would witness changes even more extraordinary. In the former you would find some thousands of muscles, which in the latter are replaced by others of a form and structure entirely different. Nearly the whole body of the caterpillar is occupied by a capacious stomach. In the butterfly this has beObservation and research have shown the true come converted into an almost imperceptible threadlike viscus; and the abdomen is now filled by two nature of insect metamorphosis; which, although large packets of eggs, or other organs not visible in no longer possessing a claim to the supernatural, the first state. In the former, two spirally convo- has by no means lost its legitimate character of luted tubes were filled with a silky gum; in the the wonderful. Instead of the crawling caterpil latter, both tubes and silk have almost totally van-lar being metamorphosed into the chrysalis, in the ished; and changes equally great have taken place strict sense of the terin, or the quiescent chrysalis in the economy and structure of the nerves and into the active butterfly, "it is now established other organs.

What a surprising transformation! Nor was this all. The change from one form to the other was not direct. An intermediate state not less singular intervened. After casting its skin even to its very jaws several times, and attaining its full growth, the caterpillar attaches itself to a leaf by a silken girth. Its body greatly contracted; its skin once more split asunder, and disclosed an oviform mass, with

beyond a doubt, that the wings, legs, and other parts of the butterfly preëxist in the chrysalis, and even in the caterpillar; these facts have been ascertained by immersing the chrysalis and caterpillar in hot water, and dissecting them when a greater degree of solidity has thus been given to

*ux, signifying both soul and butterfly.

This

the various parts." This is still more minutely their charge. It is no unusual circumstance for explained by Kirby and Spence, in the following hedges and trees to be entirely stripped of their paragraphs foliage in spring and early summer, remaining as A caterpillar is not, in fact, a simple, but a com- bare and leafless as in the depth of winter. pound animal, containing within it the germ of the mischief is chiefly caused by the caterpillars of future butterfly, inclosed in what will be the case several species of moths or butterflies, which occaof the pupa, which is itself included in the three orsionally make their appearance in astonishing nummore skins, one over the other, that will succes- bers, and devour every green leaf that falls in their sively cover the larva. As this increases in size, way. Caterpillars of other species also greatly these parts expand, present themselves, and are in turn thrown off, until at length the perfect insect, injure living trees, by eating away the internal which had been concealed in this succession of wood; and in this way they do as much mischief masks, is displayed in its genuine form. That this as the grubs of wood-boring beetles previously is the proper explanation of the phenomenon, has spoken of. In short, vegetable substances of all been satisfactorily proved by Swammerdam, Mal- descriptions, living and dead, are liable to the atpighi, and other anatomists. The first-mentioned tacks of innumerable insect foes, which are by no illustrious naturalist discovered, by accurate dissections, not only the skins of the larva and of the means confined to the members of the two classes pupa incased in each other, but within them the here referred to, since almost every tribe furnishes very butterfly itself, with its organs indeed in an its contingent to the great army, whose depredaalmost fluid state, but still perfect in all its parts. tions are doubtless permitted for certain wise purOf this fact you may convince yourself without poses, not the least important of which is the reSwammerdam's skill, by plunging into vinegar or moval of decaying organic substances. spirits of wine a caterpillar about to assume the pupa state, and letting it remain there a few days, for the purpose of giving consistency to its parts; or by boiling it in water for a few minutes. A very rough dissection will then enable you to detect the future butterfly; and you will find that the wings, rolled up in a sort of a cord, are lodged between the first and second segment of the caterpil lar; that the antennæ and trunk are coiled up in front of the head; and that the legs, however different their form, are actually sheathed in its legs. Malpighi discovered the eggs of the future moth in the chrysalis of the silkworm only a few days old; and Reaumur those of another moth (Hypogymna dispar) even in the caterpillar, and that seven or eight days before its change into the pupa. A caterpillar, then, may be regarded as a locomotive egg having for its embryo the included butterfly, which, after a certain period, assimilates to itself the animal substances by which it is surrounded; has its organs gradually developed; and at length breaks though the shell which incloses

it.

This explanation strips the subject of everything miraculous, yet by no means reduces it to a simple or uninteresting operation. Our reason is confounded at the reflection that a larva, at first not thicker than a thread, includes its own triple, or sometimes octuple teguments; the case of a chrysalis, and a butterfly, all curiously folded into each other; with an apparatus of vessels for breathing and digesting, of nerves for sensation, and of muscles for moving; and that these various forms of existence will undergo their successive evolutions by aid of a few leaves received into its stomach. And still less able are we to comprehend how this organ should at one time be capable of digesting leaves, at another only honey; how one while a silky fluid should be secreted, at another none; or how organs at one period essential to the existence of the insect, shou'd at another be cast off, and the whole system that supported them vanish.-(Introd., i. 70.)

But, beautiful as are the members of this tribe, and interesting as are their curious changes, a vast amount of the injuries caused by insects to the agriculturist, the forester, the merchant, and even to domestic economy, may fairly be laid to

The care with which insects provide for the safety and well-being of their progeny, whom the majority of them never see, furnishes some of the Most inmost curious manifestations of instinct. sect parents perish soon after they have deposited their eggs in suitable situations, with, in some cases, a supply of food to be ready for the young the moment they emerge from the egg. This is not, however, the case with all. A species of bug, inhabiting the birch tree, keeps near her eggs, and collects and takes as much care of the young when hatched as a hen does of her chickens. Another insect, perfectly harmless to man personally, though the object of much unfounded dislike, does the same thing; we allude to the earwig, whose proceedings are thus detailed by Mr. Newman :

The earwig is one of our most common insects; it is well known to every one, and is very generally an object of unconquerable dislike; the forceps at its tail, and the threatening manner in which these are turned over its back, to pinch anything of which it is afraid, render it peculiarly disgusting. The fore wings of the earwig are square, short leathery pieces, which cover but a very small portion of the body; the insect is incapable of folding them in any direction, or of using them as organs of flight. The hind wings are quite different from the fore wings; they are folded into a very small compass, and covered by the fore wings, except a sinall portion which protrudes from beneath them; and, when examined in this position, appear totally useless as organs of flight. When unfolded, the hind wings are remarkably beautiful; they are of ample size, perfectly transparent, displaying prismatic colors when moved in the light; and are intersected by veins, which radiate from near the centre to the margin. The shape of these wings when fully opened, is nearly that of the human ear; and from this circumstance it seems highly probable that the original name of this insect was ear-wing.

Earwigs subsist principally on the leaves and flowers of plants, and on fruit; and they are entirely nocturnal insects, retiring by day into dark crevices and corners, where they are screened from

observation. The rapidity with which they devour of naughty tricks, is entirely without foundation. the petals of a flower is remarkable; they clasp We believe that its injurious operations are conthe edge of a petal in their fore legs, and then, fined to spoiling the florist's choice flowers, and stretching out their head as far as possible, bite out partaking of the gardener's ripest fruits; and that they have not mended their manners in this respect for the last few hundred years, we may infer from a rather amusing passage in old Mouffet's Theatre of Insects."

a mouthful, then another mouthful nearer, and so on till the head is brought to the fore legs. This mode of eating is exactly that which is practised by the caterpillars of butterflies and moths; the part of a leaf or petal is eaten out in a semicircular form, and the head is thrust out to the extreme part after every series of mouthfuls. Pinks, carnations, and dahlias very frequently lose all their beauty from the voracity of these insects. When the time of breeding has arrived, which is generally in the autumn, the female retires for protection to the cracks in the bark of old trees, or the interstices of weather boarding, or under heavy stones on the ground: here she commences laying her eggs. The eggs are usually from twenty to fifty in number; when the female has finished laying them, she does not forsake them, as is the habit of other insects, but sits on them, in the manner of a hen, until they are hatched.

The English women hate them [the earwigs] exceedingly, because of the flowers of clove-gilliflower that they eat and spoil, and they set snares for them thus: they set in the most void places ox-hoofs, hogs'-hoofs, or old cast things that are hollow, upon a staff fastened into the ground, and these are easily stuffed with straw; and when by night the savages creep into them to avoid the rain, or hide themselves in the morning, these old cast things, being shook, forth a great multitude fall, and are killed by treading on them.

of Aristotle, the first systematist whose works have come down to our times; and the Linnæan differences are certainly no improvements upon a mode of classifying insects contrived above two thousand years ago.

The beautiful wings of the earwig lead us to When the little ones leave the shell, they are in- make a few remarks upon insect wings in general. stantly very perceptibly larger than the eggs which In nothing is what Cicero calls "the insatiable contained them. They precisely resemble the par- variety of nature" more strikingly manifested than ent in structure and habit, except that they are in those beautiful organs of locomotion; and upon without wings; they also differ in color, being per- their variations Linnæus founded his system of fectly white. The care of the mother does not classification, which differs but slightly from that cease with the hatching of the eggs; the young ones run after her wherever she moves, and she continues to sit on them and brood over them with the greatest affection for many days. If the young ones are disturbed or scattered, or if the parent is taken away from them, she will on the first opportunity, collect them again, and brood over them as A perfect insect is furnished with four wings carefully as before, allowing them to push her and six legs; in what must be considered their about, and cautiously moving one foot after anoth-normal or typical state, the four wings are all of er, for fear of hurting them. How the young ones are fed until the mother's care has ceased, does not equal size, and all equally capable of being used appear to have been ascertained; for it is not until in flying; these conditions are fulfilled in the they are nearly half grown that they are seen feeding on vegetables with the rest.—(Newman, p. 10.)

We can vouch for the accuracy of the above description of the habits of the earwig, having more than once seen the female brooding over her young ones, and pretty little white things they

are.

typical class, Neuroptera, comprising, among others, the dragon-flies, white ants, Ephemeræ, and Phryganeæ before spoken of; the most beautiful members of this group being perhaps the lace-winged flies, one of which, the elegant Chrysopa perla, has four very large greenish wings, perfectly transparent, and in texture resembling We have never seen the common earwig on the finest lace; its body is long and slender, and the wing, but have frequently captured a smaller covered with burnished armor, and its eyes large, insect, belonging to a closely allied genus, when prominent, and of a brilliant golden green color. in the act of flying; and it is probable that the The eggs of this, or a very closely allied species, earwig itself, from the ample size of its wings, is are very curious objects, greatly resembling in able to take extensive flights. The beauty of the appearance some of the delicate fungi. They are wings will well repay the observer for the little of an oval shape, and greenish white color, each trouble required to unfold them. On the back being attached to the twig of lilac, or other tree of the insect, between the second and third pairs upon which they are deposited, by means of a of legs, will be seen two little scale-like bodies, white stem, about an inch long. These stems or lying side by side; these are the fore wings, and footstalks are formed by the parent attaching a if they are carefully lifted up with a pin, the flying drop of glutinous matter to the twig, and then wings may be seen beneath them, curiously folded drawing it out to the full length of her own hody, up into the smallest possible compass, and these, the egg being at the end of it. The larva, like by the cautious use of the pin, may be opened out that of the lady-birds, is a determined enemy to to their full extent. The forceps at the end of Aphides, and after having exhausted of their the body are said to be used by the earwig in dis-juices the bodies of those pests, it covers itself playing its wings preparatory to taking flight; and with the remains of their bodies.

this supposition is a very probable one. The In the Lepidoptera, or the butterfly and moth prevalent idea, that the earwig is in the habit of tribe, we observe the first indications of a deviation entering people's. ears, and there doing all sorts from the normal equality of the two pairs of

In the Coleoptera, or beetle tribe, the fore wings completely lose their power of assisting in flight, as well as their membranaceous consistence, being of a hard, crustaceous character, and having for their only office that of protecting the membranaceous hind wings when not in use, and folded up beneath them. To this class belong the All the winged males quickly perish after May-bugs, the death-watch, and sexton beetle pairing, which takes place in the air. The first before mentioned; the Spanish fly, or blistercare of the female, on descending to the ground, beetle, the lady-bird, the glow-worm, and numbers is to select a fit spot for the formation of a nest; of others, are also members of this class. In this being fixed upon, she divests herself of her some of its orders the wings are only partially or wings, now not only useless, but an incumbrance: not at all developed; and the genus Lampyris, or this she does by twisting them about over her glow-worm, affords an example of the female back, pulling them off with her feet, or cutting being entirely without wings, while the male

appears under the form of a perfect winged beetle. | been done; the immense swarms of Aphides The luminous property of the female is allowed sometimes seen in autumn, having completed their by all naturalists; but even at the present day, own share in the work of destruction, have quitted though the fact has been again and again stated, the scene of their former devastations, after desome entomologists altogether deny the luminosity positing the eggs which are to give birth to a of the male; and even among those who are fresh brood in the following spring, and most probinclined to concede to him the possession of lamps, ably quickly perish, though this is a part of their there are some who state that the lights are visible history not yet satisfactorily ascertained. At all only while the male is at rest, and that they dis- events, this seems to agree with facts which have appear when he is flying. We are able fully to been well established by direct experiment, and confirm the testimony of those who state the male with the testimony of authors who have recorded glow-worm to be luminous, and also to say with their observations upon the economy of these inconfidence that his light is displayed while on the sects. It is to be regretted that White was not wing; having, on one occasion, had the pleasure as well acquainted with insects as with birds, or of seeing them in great numbers enter an open he would most likely have left us some valuable window, on a warm, moist, summer evening, and information upon the economy of these "smotherfly towards the candles. They alighted upon the flies." A passage in his "Natural History of table, on the hands, and on the dress of those near Selborne," well describes the immense numbers the table; the light of each was perfectly appa- of Aphides occasionally seen on the wing in their rent in the form of two or four small specks of autumnal shifting of quarters; and the date pretty light, placed towards the extremity of the abdo- nearly agrees with Professor Rennie's observation, men; and when the winged rover darted off into that he had remarked for several successive years the dark part of the room, the points of light were that the hop-flies disappear soon after midsummer, visible for a considerable distance as he receded though the leaves had been literally covered from view. with them only a few days previously. White says:

At about three o'clock in the afternoon of this

There is one curious peculiarity belonging to the glow-worm which should be mentioned; it is luminous in every stage of its existence; egg, day, [August 1st, 1785] which was very hot, the larva, and pupa, all displaying the beautiful ra- people of this village [Selborne] were surprised by diance, although not equally with the perfect in-a swarm of Aphides, or smother-flies, which fell sect. This fact tends to cast a doubt upon the hypothesis which would limit the use of the light to the purpose of enabling the male to discover his partner in the dark.

The extensive family of Aphides, or plant-lice, offer many peculiarities deserving notice. The various species are some of the greatest pests to which the gardener, the florist, and the farmer are in this country exposed. The species, for the most part, infest each its particular plant; for example, the Aphis of the hop (Aphis Humuli) is not found upon the rose-tree; nor that of the bean (A. Fabæ) upon the hop. These plant-lice often appear in immense numbers and overrun extensive districts in an incredibly short time. Like White of Selborne, many a lover of flowers has frequently had to lament the almost instantaneous destruction of his honeysuckles, roses, and other favorite plants; which, "one week the most sweet and lovely objects that the eye could behold, would become the next, the most loathsome, being enveloped in a viscous substance, and loaded with Aphides or smother-flies!"

in these parts. Those that were walking in the street at that juncture found themselves covered with these insects, which settled also on the hedges and gardens, blackening all the vegetables where them, and the stalks of a bed of onions were quite they alighted. My annuals were discolored with coated over for six days after. These armies were then, no doubt, in a state of migration, and shifting their quarters; and might have come, as far as we know, from the great hop plantations of Kent or Sussex, the wind being all that day in the easterly quarter. They were observed at the same time in great clouds about Farnham, and all along the lane from Farnham to Alton.-(Letter 53, to Barrington.)

Mr. Kirby also records the annoyance to which he was subjected later in the year by coming in contact with one of these migrant armies in the Isle of Ely; they flew into his eyes, mouth, and nostrils, and completely covered his dress. Similar appearances have not unfrequently been mentioned in the newspapers.

Like the winged ants before spoken of, it is these winged Aphides which are the founders of The extraordinary rapidity with which these in-new colonies, by depositing their eggs in places Bects will sometimes overrun a hop-garden, a rose-adapted for their reception; but unlike the ants, garden, a bean-field, or other collection of plants the parent Aphides take no further note of their that may happen to suit their purposes, affords eggs considerable countenance to the popular belief that The wonder naturally excited by the almost inthey are wafted through the air by a peculiar stantaneous appearance of large swarms of Aphides haze or “blue mist," attendant upon an east wind; will, in great measure, be dissipated, when it is and this is sometimes partially true, so far as the recollected that they are endowed with an amazing autumnal migrations are concerned, but unfortu- fecundity. The rapidity of their production is innately for the popular hypothesis, at that time of deed enormous; nine generations may descend the year the direct mischief for the season has from a single Aphis in the course of three months