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HA £ D WICKE ' S S CIENCE -GOS SIP. 



took it up in my fingers. The other two — the puss 

 and poplar hawk moth — I had brought to me in the 

 shape of pupa?, and shortly after my obtaining pos- 

 session of them, they emerged as perfect insects. 



I could always, by a search amongst nettles in the 

 month of July, obtain a plentiful supply of the larva; 

 of the small tortoiseshell butterfly ( Vanessa urtictz) ; 

 but in the north the beautiful red admiral (Vanessa 

 atalantd), and the gaudy peacock ( Vanessa lo), are not 

 so easily obtained, being in the neighbourhood of 

 Morpeth, at any rate, considered pretty rare — indeed 

 the latter is seldom seen. 



Opening my cage a few days after the capture of my 

 first batch of Vanessids, I was surprised to see at the 

 bottom, while others were suspended from the top by 

 means of a very short web, a number of what seemed 

 to me at first sight to be lumps; of gold ; they were, 

 however, nothing more than the chrysalides of Vanessa 

 tirticcs. Some of the pupre, instead of being gilded, 

 looked as if they had been, on the wing cases at 

 least, washed with silver, while others were a modest 

 sombre brown. 



I never had the pleasure of seeing my first batch 

 transferred into perfect insects ; for on returning home 

 one day from a predatory excursion to a favourite 

 pond, I found that the river, which ran near our coal- 

 house, and which was very much swollen by recent 

 rains, had invaded the coalhouse, and on the waters 

 retreating my precious box and pupa? went with 

 them. 



From subsequent observations, however, I have 

 noticed that a period of ten or twelve days from the 

 time of their entering the pupa state, suffices to bring 

 them into their perfect state. For a few days before 

 this momentous change, you can see clearly shown 

 through the pupa case, the markings of the butterfly's 

 wings. A friend of mine residing in Liverpool, 

 chanced in his ramblings in the suburbs of that city, 

 to alight on a bush (whitethorn) literally covered 

 with the larva? of that very common insect — common 

 at least in the localities where it is found at all (in 

 Northumberland I have not seen it) — the gold-tailed 

 moth. You must pardon my wandering somewhat 

 indiscriminately from butterfly to moth — from day to 

 night ; I just note memories as they occur to me. 



But to resume. The larva of the gold-tail (Liparis 

 aiiriflua), which is a very innocent-looking creature, 

 proves itself to be a tartar when taken hold of by the 

 naked fingers, as my friend found to his cost. He 

 captured a few of them, placed them in a small box, 

 and sent them off by post to me, and thought no more 

 about them. Next day, however, his hands, and not 

 only them, but parts of his face and body that he had 

 touched with them, felt, to use his own words, "as 

 if they had been stung by ten thousand nettles ; " but 

 unfortunately, unlike the sting of the nettle, they did 

 not disappear in a short time, for the itching and 

 irritation continued for a number of days, and at times 

 became almost unbearable. 



It is said, I think by the Rev. J. G. Wood, that 

 the perfect insect possesses the same qualities in this 

 respect as the larvae. I have frequently handled the 

 perfect insect, and never experienced symptoms such 

 as were related to me by my friend after he had come 

 into contact with the larvoe. 



The specimens sent to me I kept, and in due 

 course they underwent the necessary transformations, 

 and emerged into the perfect state. I obtained both 

 male and female specimens, and in a few days from 

 their emerging from the pupa?, the females deposited 

 their eggs, which being duly impregnated, in a few 

 weeks there came forth a brood of caterpillars — a 

 second generation. It was nearing that part of the 

 year when Jack Frost stalks abroad in the land, and 

 the food-plant of this species was very difficult to 

 procure. I was at a loss what to do. Was I to have 

 my brood destroyed for want of food ? I was soon to 

 receive an answer to my query. 



I kept my prisoners not in a larvae cage, as I was 

 afraid of their escape through the perforations in the 

 zinc — they being at this time very small indeed ; but 

 I kept them under a common glass tumbler in a very 

 cool part of the house (not the coalhouse), and just 

 as I was beginning to get very anxious over the 

 question — how was I to procure them more food ? — 

 they suddenly, it seemed, resolved to eat no more, 

 retired into a chip pill-box, which I had placed in 

 the tumbler to contain their food, and enclosed them- 

 selves, separately, in a web (not a cocoon) ; and thus 

 they remained all winter, themajority of them coming 

 forth in the spring, when they applied themselves 

 industriously to devour the food which I had placed 

 for them, as if they were fully conscious of the time 

 they had lost, and were equally intent on making it up. 

 I need hardly say that I was successful in bringing 

 them to maturity ; and when they had reached this 

 perfect condition, I set a number of them free in the 

 neighbourhood of the food-plant, and since then I 

 have neither beheld tbem nor their progeny. Sad end 

 to such a bold experiment ! 



A favourite captive of mine was the larva of the 

 tiger moth (Chelonia eaja) — a species which is easily 

 procured. A careful look-out on the leaves of the dead- 

 nettle, whilst taking a country walk in the month of 

 June, will be sure to reward the collector with an 

 abundant harvest. This caterpillar is a voracious 

 feeder, and nothing seems to come amiss to it. It 

 has a beautiful appearance after having cast its second 

 skin, the long gray hairs which cover its back being 

 then fresh, and smooth as silk. 



This species of larva?,* too, hybernates during the 

 long winter months, and reappears in the spring to 



* In correcting, I find that this paragraph may be misunder- 

 stood by some. The case of a larva of Chelonia caja 

 hybernating was that of a specimen, which I had reared from 

 the egg in my own breeding-cage, and not, as might be 

 thought, of one reared in the open air, and at the usual time of 

 the year. I have now in my cabinet the perfect insect into 

 which this larva was transformed. 



