CRITICAL NOTICE — FOREIGN. 57 



" This caterpillar is found, from June to the beginning of September, upon the 

 different species of the poplar, and willow genus. On attainment of the full size, it 

 spins an exceedingly hard and gummy case, covered with minute chips, or morsels 

 of lichen, and strongly adherent to the body upon which it is fixed." 



"The chrysalis is of a shortened conico-cylindrical figure, and blackish-brown 

 colour. The perfect insect is disclosed from the middle of April to the end of May." 



The very common Lepidopter, produced by this extraordinary cater- 

 pillar, is the Bomhyx vinula, of Linneeus and Godart ; Harpya vinula, of 

 Ochsenheimer ; la Queue fourchue, of Ernst ; Cerura vinula, of Curtis 

 and of Stephens ; and Puss-moth, of vulgar entomologists. The reader 

 may compare the preceding description of the French naturalists, with 

 that appended to plate LXXXV, in the 3rd volume of Donovan's pleasing 

 work. Professor Rennie's sketch, exhibited at page 33 of his Conspectus 

 of Butterflies, is very vague and unsatisfactory. 



As the exquisite work, upon which we have long been feasting, with all 

 the avidity and zest of the epicure of ancient Rome for his celebrated 

 Cossus,* is probably destined to fall under the notice of comparatively few 

 readers of ** The Analyst," we have been strongly tempted to present 

 another sketch, — that of the Bomhyx quercus, and its compact and beautiful 

 cocoon, — from the Family of the *' Bombycines." Prudence, however, 

 warns us to desist. Caterpillars, although affording an admirable and 

 most nutritious food to organs of intellectual digestion in a sound and 

 vigorous state, will readily cloy the delicate and fastidious stomach. Our 

 object is to stimulate, not pall, the appetite for knowledge ; — to produce 

 craving and not satiety. Should the specimen^, however, already given, 

 excite, in the student of entomological science, any desire for further 

 supply of the like substantial fare, we may, probably, be induced to 

 present an occasional dish of European caterpillars, dressed up in our 

 plain old English fashion ; and rendered, mayhap, somewhat more 

 grateful to the English palate, by the judicious admixture of a few spices 

 of criticism, and a small sprinkling of the pure spirit of observation, with 

 and upon the various articles destined for his repast. 



To the description of each caterpillar are prefixed " an extensive 

 Synonymy ; and copious references to the works of the various authors 

 by whom the animal has been figured or described. The collection, 

 moreover, will be ultimately enriched by " general considerations and 

 anatomical details'* on the subject of caterpillars. In these, the best 

 mode of procuring, and rearing the different species, will be explained ; 

 and an outline of the generic characters, by which they may be dis- 

 tinguished and arranged, will be carefully traced. Finally, full directions 

 will be given to the agriculturist, for the discrimination and destruction 

 of noxious caterpillars. The execution of this important pledge will, 

 we apprehend, be deferred till the work is drawing near the period of 

 its completion. When that will be, " Man does not know." 



P. 



* Great diversity of opinion exists among authors of the present day as to the 

 precise animal which formed this celebrated article of Roman luxury. By some, it 

 is stated to have been the caterpillar of the goat-moth, — Phalcena cossus, of Lin- 

 naeus, — Cossus ligniperda, of modern entomologists. Others believe it to liave been 

 the larva of a beetle of the Lucanus or Cerambyx genus. From our own researches 

 on this curious subject, we are led to infer that the wood-boring caterpillars and 

 larvae of several insects, now arranged in different orders and genera, were, by the 

 ancients, confounded, and eaten, under the common designation of Cossus. The 

 most satisfactory account which we have hitherto seen, is given under the articles, 

 Calandre des Palmiers, and Capricorne, in Cloquet's Faune des Medecins, ou Histoire 

 des Animaux et de leurs Produits, 8vo. Paris,— an interesting periodical, commenced 

 thirteen years ago, and not yet completed. 



February. — vol. ii. no. vii. i 



