18 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



[CH. I. 



off, and the various limbs of the future butterfly are 

 Represented as extended. 



These figures will be sufficient to refute, in the 

 most satisfactory manner, the statement of a recent 



author, that it is the tail of the larva which becomes 

 the head of the butterfly. 



The outer skin of a chrysalis is of a hard and rigid 

 substance, although on its first exclusion from the 

 skin of the caterpillar it is not enclosed in this hard 

 covering. "At the moment of this change," ob- 

 serve Messrs. Kirby and Spence, founding their ob- 

 servations upon those of Reaumur, contained in the 

 eighth memoir of his first volume upon chrysalides 

 in general, " the envelope is nearly soft and mem- 

 branous. But they are besides covered with a vis- 

 cous fluid, which appears to ooze out chiefly from 

 under the wings, and which, very soon drying, 

 forms the exterior hard shell. At first the anten- 

 nae, wings, and legs can each be separated from the 

 body ; and it is only after these parts have been 

 glued together by the fluid just mentioned, which 

 takes place in less than twenty-four hours, that they 



are immoveably attached to the body of the pupa, 

 as we usually see them." 



