262 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



July came, and we can conceive the curiosity with 

 which the ingenious experimenter went down, as he 

 tells us, to his cellars, to see if any change had taken 

 place in the pupae. July passed away ; August 

 also passed by, yet the pupae still slumbered on in 

 their original form. Reaumur left Paris in Sep- 

 tember, and did not return until the November 

 following. He immediately went in quest of his 

 pupa-charge, and found them still unaltered. 

 Were they dead? Placing one in his hand, it 

 soon began to exhibit such symptoms of motion 

 as plainly showed that it was alive. Winter 

 closed over them still in the pupa form. The 

 spring of the next year dawned upon them, but 

 they were insensible to its influences. " And even 

 now," cries Reaumur, in the month of August, just 

 two years from the time they left the larva form 

 and became pupa3, " they are in perfect health, in 

 excellent condition, and would all become butter- 

 flies very soon if I were only to expose them to 

 a warm summer's influence." 



" These extraordinary facts," observe Messrs. 

 Kirby and Spence, " lead us to a very singular 

 and unexpected conclusion, that we have the 

 power of lengthening or shortening the life of many 



