236 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



lost much time of painful watching. His fears 

 however proved to be vain, for it accomplished its 

 moult without accident, and at seven o'clock in the 

 evening on the first of June, it gave birth to a 

 young one, and up to the 22nd of June inclusive 

 it produced altogether ninety-five, all alive. The 

 size of the mother became at this period much di- 

 minished, and precisely like those imagined by 

 Geoffroy to be males. M. Bonnet's subsequent ob- 

 servations were interrupted by her escape ; though 

 the point was ascertained, as far at least as one 

 experiment went, that the mother of ninety-five 

 aphides had never paired.* 



The result of these observations having been 

 transmitted to Reaumur and read by him at a sitting 

 of the Academic des Sciences at Paris, produced an 

 extraordinary sensation among those who were in- 

 terested in such pursuits ; and as it was desirable 

 that a deviation so very singular from the common 

 laws of nature should not rest upon individual tes- 

 timony, however respectable, the experiments and 

 observations were repeated and varied in every pos- 

 sible way at the request of the Academy by a number 

 of the most distinguished naturalists then living, 

 namely, M. Bazin of Strasbourg, MM. Lyonnet and 

 Trembley at the Hague, by M. Bonnet himself at 

 Geneva, and in fine by M. Reaumur, who says 

 he would have justly merited reproach if he had ne- 

 glected to see with his own eyes experiments under- 

 taken at his express request. | 



M. Bazin was fortunate in selecting the species 

 which feeds on the poppy {Aphis papaverisy Fabr.) 

 as the young arrive at maturity in seven or eight 

 days, and they are besides not apt to ramble far from 

 the spot where they are born. A young aphis of this 



* Bonnet, CEuvres, i, 30, 

 t Ml moires, vi, 541. 



