308 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



tell us of a German entomologist who says, that 

 two specimens of the pine-lappet moth were once 

 produced from one pupa, which was of the re- 

 markable size of two inches in length and one in 

 thickness. But these are very rare instances, the 

 common and almost universal rule being that one 

 pupa only contains one insect. 



Nothing now remains for us to add to the 

 insect's history in the pupa state. Already, for 

 it is Spring far advanced, the air is becoming 

 peopled with insect tribes 



" The insect youth are on the wing, 

 Eager to taste the honied spring, 

 And float amid the liquid noon." 



A thousand times ten thousand, nay, thousands of 

 thousands, are already in the air; and the low 

 hum of their wings may be heard if we stand 

 breathless and listen in the midst of some se- 

 questered spot, far from the roar and bustle and 

 strife of town life. But the great life-season of 

 the insect world is yet to come ; and though May 

 whispers it is nigh, June, July, and August 

 must bring it to us, and with it a teeming mul- 

 titude of insect flutterers more numerous than the 

 stars of heaven, or the sand-grains of the sea-shore. 



