refitting external injuries; a cafe, which is at the fame time the
fepulchre o f the caterpillar, and the cradle of the moth ; where,
as under a veil, this wonderful transformation is carried on.
The pupa has been called a chryfalis, - or creature made o f gold,
from the refplendent yellow colour with which fome kinds are
adorned. M. de Reaumur has fhewn us whence they derive this
rich colour; that it proceeds from two flrins, the upper one a
beautiful brown, which lays upon or covers a highly-polifhed
and fmooth white fkin: the light reflefted from the laft, in patting
through, gives it the golden yellow, in the fame manner as this
colour is often given to leather ; fo that the whole appears gilded,
although no gold enters into the tinfture. The chryfalis o f the
common white butterfly furnifhes a matt beautiful objeft for the
lucernal opake microfcope.
Thofe who are defirous to difeover diftindtly the various members
o f the moth in the pupa, fhould examine it before the fore-
mentioned fluid is dried up, when it will be found to be only the'
moth, with the members glued together; thefe, by degrees, acquire
fufficient force to break their covering, and difengage them-
felves from the bands which confine them.
T o examine the moth concealed under the fkin o f a caterpillar,
one o f them fhould be taken at the laft change ; when the fkin:
begins to open, it fhould be drowned in fpirits o f wine, or fome
ftrong liquor, and be left therein for fome days, that it may
take more confiftency and harden itfelf; the fkin o f the caterpillar
may then be eafily removed : the chryfalis, or feeble moth,
will be-firft difcovered, after which the tender moth may be
traced
traced out, and it’s wings, legs, antennas, See. may be opened
and difplayed by an accurate obferver. t
The parts o f the moth, or butterfly, are not difpofed exaftly
in the fame manner in the body o f the caterpillar, as when left
naked in the chryfalis. The wings are longer and narrower,
being wound'up into the form o f a cord, and the antennae are
rolled up on the head; the tongue is alfo twitted up and laid
upon the head, but in a very different manner from what it is in
the perfeft animal, and different from that which it lies in
within the chryfalis; fo that it is by a progreflive and gradual
change, that the interior parts are prepared for the moth and
pupa ftate. The eggs, hereafter to be depofited by the
moth, are alfo to be found not only in the chryfalis, but in the
caterpillar itfelf, arranged in their natural and regular order.
The time which the moth, or butterfly, remains in the pupa
ftate is not always the fame, varying in different fpecies, and depending
alfo upon the warmth o f the weather, and other adventitious
circumftances; fome remain in that fituation for a few
weeks ; others do not attain their perfeft form for eight, nine, or
eleven months : this often depends on the feafon in which they
affume the pupa form, or rather on the time of their birth.
Some irregularities are alfo occafioned by the different temperature
o f the air, by which they are retarded or accelerated, fo
as to be brought forward in the feafon bell fuited to their nature
and the ends of their exiftence. I have heard of an inftance,
where the pupa, produced from caterpillars of the fame eggs, nou-
rifhed in the fame manner, and which all fpun up within a few days
of each otherin the autumn,came intothe fly ftate at three different
B b 2 and