ORDER IV.—-MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. 127 
the appearance and beauty of the insect, as well as in its 
form and structure. Some of the handsomest caterpillars 
issue from their cocoons the plainest, even the ugliest look-- 
ing butterflies, and vice versa. ‘Thus the potato-worm is 
remarkable for its beautifully variegated colors, but when 
it becomes adult as a hawk-moth it has a uniform dingy 
gray color. But the contrary is often the case, and an in- 
significant-looking caterpillar is as often metamorphosed 
into a very handsome butterfly. 
Such changes, however, are not confined to insects, but 
are also common throughout the animal kingdom, as well 
in the highest as the lowest classes, and would seem to be 
something more than a mere freak of nature. 
But the metamorphosis of Butterflies and Moths has al- 
ways been a subject of interesting contemplation and of 
profound analogical reasoning, and has ever been considered 
the true type of man’s existence here, and his brighter and 
happier life hereafter. In the most ancient times it prob- 
ably gave origin and strength to the belief in the transmi- 
gration of souls, metempschycosis, as also to a thousand 
fabulous stories and fairy tales, in the same manner as the 
annual casting of the skin of snakes, by which process that 
reptile appears every spring in a new dress of bright and 
glittering colors, has given rise, even in the remotest antiq- 
uity, to the idea of regeneration and endless life hereafter. 
Caterpillars, notwithstanding their beauty, are very gen- 
erally disliked on account of the immense injury they do to 
vegetation; but the prevailing prejudice against them, in 
my Opinion, arises more from the general ignorance of their 
uses, and the benefit they are capable of conferring upon 
man, than upon the actual amount of damage done by them. 
We will mention some of their uses, and again endeavor to 
convince our readers that none of the works of nature are 
So insignificant as to be wholly without use in the great 
plan of economy. 
