344 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



cess is of course varied in the case of those minute spe- 

 cies of which several, sometimes as many as 150, can 

 subsist in a single caterpillar. The little Ichneumon 

 then repeats her operations until she has darted into her 

 victim the requisite number of eggs. 



The larva? hatched from the egofs thus ingeniouslv 

 deposited, find a delicious banquet in the body of the 

 caterpillar, which is sure eventually to fall a victim to 

 their ravages. So accurately, however, is the supply of 

 food proportioned to the demand, that this event does 

 not take place until the young Ichneumons have attained 

 their full growth : when the caterpillar either dies, or, 

 retaining just vitality enough to assume the pupa state, 

 then finishes its existence ; the pupa disclosing not a moth 

 or a butterfly, but one or more full-grown Ichneumons. 



In this strange and apparently cruel operation one 

 circumstance is truly remarkable. The larva of the 

 Ichneumon, though every day, perhaps for months, it 

 gnaws the inside of the caterpillar, and though at last it 

 has devoured almost every part of it except the skin and 

 intestines, carefully all this time avoids injwing the vital 

 07-gans, as if aware that its own existence depends on that 

 of the insect on which it preys ! Thus the caterpillar 

 continues to eat, to digest, and to move, apparently little 

 injured, to the last, and only perishes when the parasitic 

 grub within it no longer requires its aid. What would 

 be the impression which a similar instance amongst the 

 race of quadrupeds would make upon us ? — If, lor ex- 

 ample, an animal — such as some impostors have pre- 

 tended to carry within them — should be found to feed 

 upon the inside of a dog; devouring only those parts not 

 essential to lite, while it cautiously left uninjured the 



