EMBRYO BUTTERFLIES. 



133 



recorded many instances, besides the one under con- 

 sideration, of their strange mistakes in o-uessing at 

 what they cannot fathom. We prefer followino- 

 Swammerdam, Rtjaumnr, and Bonnet, in recording- 

 what can be actually seen on examining the structure 

 of caterpillars. 



In a chapter of Swammerdam 's Book of Nature, 

 quaintly headed "An animal in an animal, or the 

 butterfly hidden in the caterpillar," we find the fol- 

 lowing details respecting the caterpillar of the large 

 cabbage-butterfly {Pontia brassicce). The egg of 

 this insect is of a yellow colour, flask-shaped, and 

 marked with fifteen ribs, converging towards the 

 smaller end, and extending a little beyond it. The 



Egg of the large cabbage-bntterfty (Pontia hrarM:<s)y magn'rfied, 



caterpillar, but too well known from its ravages, has 

 sixteen feet, a yellow line along the back, and another 

 on each side, the rest of the body being bluish grey, 

 spotted with black ; and the whole surface sprinkled 

 with thin, short, whitish hairs*. 



" In order," continues Swammerdam, " to dissever 

 plainly that a butterfly is inclosed and hidden in the 

 skin of this caterpillar, the following operation must 



* Ray, Cat. Cantab., quoted by Swammerdam. See fig. a, 

 page 62. 



