INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 25 



which will be well rewarded, to become witnesses, within 

 doors, of the latter operation. This with a variety of insects 

 is equally curious and interesting, though most conspicuous 

 and easy of observation with the tribe of Butterflies and Moths. 



Numerous Cabbage Butterflies, both of the larger and 

 smaller species, have " come out " already, and are now upon the 

 wing ; but as of these there are various successive broods, there 

 are almost as many still enwrapped in the skins of their an- 

 gular chrysalides, and hung pendent, horizontally, in their 

 chosen places of security, such as under the copings and 

 ledges of garden walls and palings.* We have only to lay 

 gentle hands on a few of these seeming sleepers, and carefully 

 detaching with a knife their silken buttons of suspension, to 

 stick them by the same, with a thread girth round the body, 

 to the upper edge of a deep- sided box; then placing this 

 beside us on the table, we shall hardly fail by an occasional 

 glance to have our curiosity gratified in their emergeuient 

 under our own eyes. 



We must remember that, like the embryo of a plant in the 

 seed, or the rudiments of a leaf or flower in the bud, the 

 various parts of the butterfly have been pre-existent even in 

 the caterpillar; and when these are arrived at their full 

 maturity within their chrysalis cover, then approaches the 

 crisis of emergement. At this period there takes place a 

 violent agitation in the fluids of the insect,t by which they 



* Vignette to ' Life in Death/ vol. i. f Insect Transformations, p. 136. 



