I04 GENERATION OF INSECTS 



On the fifth of June, on my way to the Villa of Poggio 

 Imperiale, I saw a great many caterpillars crawling about 

 on the holm oaks, which border the road. Some of these 

 would descend by means of silky threads and on reaching 

 the ground, quickly pull themselves up again by the 

 thread. Having ordered a large quantity to be gathered, 

 I noticed that they were all covered with long hair, some 

 being black, and others red; they were all spotted on the 

 back with fourteen dots. I put them in special boxes, 

 where they lived for several days on the oak leaves, then, 

 having divested themselves of their hairy tunic, it seemed 

 as though they were about to prepare a cocoon, but either 

 from lack of material, or, as I believe, because it was their 

 habit, they did not finish the cocoon, but inside the net- 

 work of filaments, already begun, they changed into 

 chrysalides, that were first reddish, then blackish and 

 shaped like a cone, on the base of which a few hairs re- 

 mained. On the 26th of June there issued from them 

 some butterflies, formed like those that come from the 

 silk cocoons, with the difference that the last are white, 

 and the former of pale brown with black tracings and two 

 long antenn3e on the head, and a black silk tassle on the 

 end of the belly ; but on the twenty-eighth day the other 

 chrysalides opened and let out smaller butterflies, that 

 were entirely white; two of these having united, the 

 female laid a great many eggs, small and yellow, which 

 produced a like number of very small caterpillars in the 

 following May. 



On the 5th of July, I found a very large caterpillar on 

 a plant of nightshade. As soon as I had put it in an en- 

 closed place, it began to gnaw the leaves of the plant that 

 I gave it; and on the seventh day of the same month it 

 shed its skin, and remained in the shape of a red chrysalis, 



