WHITE-PINE LEAF-LOUSE. 95 



not do SO it would be fatally imprisoned, in its future beetle state, 

 within the mature and hardened shell, an event which the Gouger 

 carefully guards against, though the horticulturist might regard it 

 as a consummation devoutly to be wished. 



The Dissipus-butterfiy ( Nymphalis disippus^ Gdt. ) an interest- 

 ing account of which is given by Mr. Kiley, in the first volume of 

 the American Entomologist, lives in its caterpillar state, on differ- 

 ent kinds of willow. In this state it passes the winter, inclosed 

 in a willow leaf, rolled into a cylindrical case. But as the leaf 

 would fall like the rest, when touched by frost, or be blown away 

 by the wind, the insect fastens its footstalk with silken threads to 

 the branch on which it grows, and thus securely rides through the 

 frosts and storms of winter. 



The larvse of a beautiful East Indian butterflj', the Thecla Iso- 

 crates, live in companies of half-a-dozen or more, in the fruit of the 

 pomegranate, and there also pass the pupa state. But before 

 changing to chrysalids, each larva cuts a round hole in the rind, 

 through which the future butteriiy, which itself has no teeth, but 

 only a slender flexible proboscis, may be able to escape, and as the 

 worm-eaten fruit would be likely to fall prematurely to the ground 

 the larvce crawl out and make the stem fast to the tree with their 

 web and then return and go through their tiansformations. 



Those moths whose larvse or caterpillars are leaf eaters, always 

 lay their eggs upon that kind of plant or tree upon which it is the 

 nature of their future progeny to subsist, though they have no 

 other relation to the tree, and though the eggs do not usually hatch 

 till after the death of the parent, and sometimes not till the follow- 

 ing year. 



Many kinds of wasps exhibit a wonderful provisional instinct. 

 The female wasp burrows into the ground or sometimes into rotten 

 wood, constructs a cell at the bottom of the cavity and there de- 

 posits her eggs. She then carries in insects which may serve as 

 food for her future progeny. S jme species take the additional pre- 

 caution to disable but not kill the insects thus provided, so that 

 her young may find themselves provided with fresh provisions. 

 Having completed her task she closes the hole, and never again 

 re-visits it, but shortly after perishes. 



Now are we to understand that these insects are really endowed 

 with a prophetic vision? Do they know what will be their own 



