42 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



butterfly {Vcmessa utircce) , which is also found on 

 those of most of the species, leads us to remark that 

 insect eggs are frequently sculptured in a very beau- 

 tiful manner, far out-rivalling in elegance of design 

 and delicacy of workmanship the engravings which 

 we sometimes see on eggs brought from India and 

 China. Some of them, when seen through a micro- 

 scope, remind us of the fine crustaceous shells called 

 sea-eggs, — a resemblance which is well exemplified 

 in the egg of the angle-shades moth {Phlos^ophora 

 meticulosa, Stephens), as compared with the Chj' 

 peaster of Parkinson. 



o, inagai/ied egg of tlie augk ■>!) ^^[^ -, iiinili ' I'lthi^ojilioiu meti- 

 culos(i) ; 6, sea-eg^f (C/ij^itu^tc, ,) natuial ^iLe. 



These channellings appear to correspond in most 

 cases with the rings of the caterpillar to be hatched 

 from the egg; but the design of the other sculptures 

 on these eggs has not yet been discovered by the 

 investigations of naturalists, and may, probably, for 

 ever elude human penetration. But though we 

 cannot tell why an insect's egg is so tastefully carved, 

 we can admire the minute delicacy and extraordinary 

 regularity of the markings. The egg of the meadow 

 brown butterfly {Hipparchia Jiirima) is crowned at 

 the upper end with sculptured work in the form of 

 tiles or slates, as if to defend it from injury, while 

 others are covered with a sort of net-work of extreme- 

 ly minute six-sided meshes. 



