MEMOIR ON ANIMAL COTTON. 153 



ftings into the ikin of their vidlim, over the whole ex- 

 tent of his back and fides. Afterwards, and all at the 

 fame time, they flip their eggs into the bottom of the 

 wounds which they have made. 



After having performed this dreadful operation, the 

 ichneumon flies difappear, and the patient remains for an 

 hour, in a drowzy and ev^en motionlefs ftate, out of 

 which he awakens to feed with his former voracity. 

 Then he appears much larger, and his fize increafes every 

 day. His green colour affumcs a deeper hue, and the 

 tints produced by the refledlion of the light are more 

 fl;rong!y marked. The animal in this ilate of ficftitious 

 pregnancy, if 1 may fo exprefs myfelf, is worthy of all 

 the attention of the obferver of nature. 



I fhall not undertake the defcription of the ichneumon 

 fly, it is well defcribed in the books. If I have obferved 

 a difference, it is the fame which exifts between the Eu- 

 ropean gnat and the miifcjuitoe of hot regions, that is to 

 fay, that our Weft-India flies are of a lefler fize. 



1 have now to defcribe the operation which the ich- 

 neumon flies, which are extremely fmall, perform at the 

 very moment of their coming into the world ; you will 

 judge, gentlemen, whether this expreffion is accurate. 



Animal Cotton. 



A fortnight after the ichneumon flies have thus cruelly 

 depofited their eggs by perforating the unfortunate caffa- 

 da-worm, that is to fay, fome time in the month of Au- 

 guft, thofe eggs may be feen by the help of a microfcope, 

 hatching on the body of that animal. 



Thofe eggs are all hatched at the fame moment, and 

 it is impoflible to catch the moral point of time which 

 may intervene between the birth of one and that of ano- 



ther> 



