infests the Lombardy-Poplar. 143 



false or bastard Caterpillars, which carry a great resem- 

 blance in their figure to real Caterpillars, but which 

 have more legs than any true ones have, and are finally 

 transformed into four-winged flies, which are not true 

 butterflies." Vide Eruca. 



Having settled, from the first authorities of England 

 and France (if there be higher than those, I am not ac- 

 quainted with them), what the Caterpillar is, and the 

 genera, true and false, into which it is divided, I shall go 

 on to point out the only construction which can fairly 

 be put on my letter. I say fairly, because I hold it dis- 

 ingenuous for any gentleman, let his knowledge in com- 

 mon matters be ever so extensive, to indulge in an in- 

 terpretation of any writer, except he have at hand suffi- • 

 cient and adequate guides. 



In my letter it was mentioned, that the reptile of which 

 I treat, is pretty evidently of the class of Caterpillar. 

 Then if it be a Caterpillar, and did not after its aurelia 

 state pass into a butterfly, it necessarily must pass into a 

 large fly, otherwise it would not be a Caterpillar ; for a 

 Caterpillar is ultimately and necessarily a winged insect. 

 Its not passing after its aurelia state into a butterfly, is 

 a mere antithesis, and as clearly and irrefutably declared 

 it to pass into a large fly, as if in so many words it were 

 asserted. Nay, in substance, it was asserted. For it 

 was mentioned to be of the spurious genus, which, 

 agreeably to the English and French writers of the first 

 rank, must, after its metamorphoses, be a fly. 



