324 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



death, shrunk, rumpled, and totally useless for the 

 purpose of flying, though in every other respect 

 she was full grown, and deposited in the box a 

 group of fertile eggs, covered with down from her 

 tail, as neatly as was done by her sisters of the 

 same brood. In the summer of 1825, the chrysalis 

 of a small tortoise-shell butterfly, ( Vanessa urticce^) 

 lost its hold of its silken suspensory, and fell upon 

 the pasteboard bottom of a nurse-box, resting in 

 a sort of angular position, so that the case of the 

 upper wing on the left side, pressed upon the box 

 with the whole weight of the chrysalis above it. 

 When the butterfly made its appearance, it ex- 

 panded its wings as usual; but the wing upon 

 which it had rested was not half the size of the 

 one on the right side which had lain uppermost. 

 Another of the same brood had, from some cause, 

 not grown so large in the caterpillar state as the rest. 

 It was transformed, notwithstanding, into a chry- 

 salis, which appeared healthy and well-formed ; but 

 when the butterfly appeared, though it did not 

 differ from the usual appearance, its wings never 

 expanded a single hair's breadth, and remained 

 always in the same state as when it issued from 

 the chrysalis." 



