188 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



lowing striking observation of a talented entomo- 

 logist, who has not thought it beneath him to 

 write a most interesting book only on the family 

 of ants (M. Huber), shows very clearly that such 

 is, in fact, the intention of providing the larva with 

 a covering of this kind. He noticed that the larvae 

 of some species of ants destined to pass through 

 the winter, were furnished with this kind of warm 

 clothing, while those which were not so destined 

 had smooth coats, that is, even in the same 

 species : thus proving to us, beyond a doubt, 

 that as the winter approached, the warm coat 

 was put on by the larvae. The engraving on 

 the last page represents some extraordinary speci- 

 mens of hairiness in caterpillars from Brazil, now 

 in the British Museum. 



A large number of larvae become torpid during 

 winter they are not dead they are not sensibly 

 alive they are plunged in that long half-death 

 which affects not only them but also many large 

 animals, who retire in winter, lie down to sleep for 

 weeks, and awake to find the cold departing, and 

 the spring-time nigh at hand. But the frost some- 

 times proves too severe for them, and the poor in- 

 sects become sometimes congealed into solid lumps 



