452 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS?. 



of spring-, were numbers of the caterpillars of the goose- 

 berry-moth (Phala'na G. grossulariata), which, though 

 tiiey had passed the winter with no other shelter than 

 the sliglitly projecting rim of some large garclen-pots, 

 were alive and quite uninjured ; and these and many 

 other larvae never in my recollection were so nume- 

 rous and destructive as in that spring : w hence, as well 

 from the corresponding fact recorded with surprise by 

 Boerhaave, that insects abounded as much after the in- 

 tense winter of 1709, during which Fahrenheit's ther- 

 mometer fell to 0, as after the mildest season, Ave 

 may see the fallacy of the popular notion that hard win- 

 ters are destructive to insects^. 



But though many larvae and pupa? are able to resist 

 a great degree of cold, when it increases to a certain 

 extent they yield to its intensity, and become solid 

 masses of ice. In this state we should think it impos- 

 sible that they should ever revive. That an animal 

 whose juices, muscles, and whole body have been sub- 

 jected to a process which splits bombshells, and con- 

 verted into an icy mass that may be snapped asunder 

 like a piece of glass, should ever recover its vital 

 powers, seems at first view little less than a miracle ; 

 and, if the reviviscency of the wheel animal ( Vorticclla 

 rotatoria) and of snails, &c. after years of desiccation, 

 had not made us familiar with similar prodigies, might 

 Iiave been pronounced impossible ; and it is probable 

 that many iiisfctc when thus frozen never do revive. 

 Of the i'uct, however, as to several species, there is no 

 doubt. It was first noticed by Lister, who relates that 



^ \'iil. Spenre i;i Transactions of 1,'ic IloidcuU. Soc. of London, ii. 148. 

 Coniittre Keuuiii. ii. 111. 



