^4^ . INSECT TR'ANSfOIUVIATIONS. 



na'joflger visible, and the i^^ct becomes fitted for 

 flight.* " , 



Kirby, in speaking of the swallow-tailed butterfly 

 [Papilio Machaon), says, ' I had:t}ie pleasure of see- 

 ing it leave its pupariumthe 16th of May. With great 

 care I placed it upon my arm, where it kept pacing 

 about for the space of more than an hour; when all its 

 parts appearing consolidated and developed, and the 

 animal perfect in beauty, I secured it, though not with- 

 out great reluctance, for my cabinet — it being the only 

 living specimen of this fine fly I had ever seen. To 

 observe how gradual, and yet how rapid, was the de- 

 velopment of the parts and organs, and particularly of 

 the wings, and the perfect coming forth of the colour 

 and spots, as the sun gave vigour to it, was a most in- 

 teresting spectacle. At first, it was unable to elevate 

 or even move its wings; but in proportion as the aerial 

 or other fluid was forced by the motions of its trunk 

 into their nervures, their numerous corrugations and 

 folds gradually yielded to the action till they had gain- 

 ed their greatest extent, and the film between all the 

 nervures became tense. The ocelli, and spots and 

 bars, which appeared at first as but germs or rudiments 

 of what they were to be, grew with the growing wing, 

 and shone forth upon its complete expansion in full 

 magnitude and beauty. 't 



The probable object of the movements which an 

 insect makes, upon just escaping from the chrysalis, 

 is to impel the fluids that had been compressed 

 during its confinement, and more particularly air, 

 into the various parts of the expanding body and 

 wings. The wings, it may be remarked, are not, on 

 the exclusion of the insect, folded up as are the long 

 wings of an earwig [Forjicula cmricularia), but are 



* Swammerdain, ii, 7, &c. t Intr. iii, 293. 



