NATUIIAL HISTOUV OF LEPIDOPTEROUS INSECTS. 51 



of a New Bedford whale ship like a pipe stem ; he could mash into a 

 jelly the most gigantic mammoth, who came down to the water to drink, 

 with two or three blows. He could twist himself round the Great Wes- 

 ern steamer and draw her down, engines, passengers and all ! It is well 

 there are no such animals existing at present, for navigation would be 

 dangerous, whale oil would be dear, and all the smaller fishes scarce. 

 Milton must have had him in view, when he described the snaky sor- 

 ceress of sin at Hell's door : 



"Willi head uplift above the wave, and eyes 

 That sparkling blazed : his other parts besides 

 Prone on the flood, extended long; and large. 

 Lay floating many a rood ; in bulk as huge 

 As whom the fables name, of monstrous size, 

 Titanian or earth born, that warred on Jove, 

 Briareus or Typhon, whom tlie den 

 By ancient Tarsus held ; or that sea beast. 

 Leviathan, which God of all his works. 



Created hugest that swim the ocean stream. 



***** 



So stretched out huge in length the arch fiend lay." 



J. G. M. 



AN INTRODUCTION 



TO THE NATURAL HISTORY OF LEPIDOPTEROUS INSECTS. 

 From the Frencli of Boisduv;ul. 



The existence of Lepidopters in their perfect state is very brief in 

 duration ; the male perishes within a few days after copulation, and the 

 female soon after she has laid her eggs. But some European VanessaSj 

 and, as we suspect, many Heterocerata, exhibit in certain cases a very 

 remarkable anomaly : they do not prepare for reproduction until within 

 seven or eight months after the hatching of the perfect insect. Thus, 

 for example, the Vanessa aniiopa, V. polychloros, etc., living together in 

 the larva state, and hatched in the summer, do not unite until the spring 

 of the following year. The greater part- continue to fly until the end 

 of their existence, althougli some withdraw into the crevices of walls, 

 hollow trees, vaults, caves, etc., and fall into a state of torpidity until 

 the first pleasant days. Some authors have believed that it was late- 

 hatched individuals that had been surprized by the arrival of severe 

 weather, that fell into this state of lethargy; but it is not so, for we 

 have had opportunities of seeing the Vanessa j^olychloros and V. 

 7irticae, in a profound torpor, in the month of August, when other 

 individuals of the same species were flying about in tlie warm sunshine. 

 This explains why Vanessas are found in the Spring so fresh, although 



