202 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



two inches long, they metamorphose into a cocoon, which 

 they suspend on fences or walls. Fortunately a great num 

 ber of these become the prey of spiders and ichneumon 

 wasps, and for this reason four or five summers will not 

 unfrequently pass by without our seeing many of these in 

 sects. 



This butterfly is also an inhabitant of Europe and Asia. 

 We have seen plenty of them in Italy, France, Germany, 

 and Russia, as far north as St. Petersburg, as well as in 

 Transcaucasia ; but whether the American species are de 

 scendants of these, or vice versa, or whether Nature origin 

 ally created one pair in the Eastern Continent and another 

 pair, at the same time, in the Western, we are obliged to 

 confess we do not know. The solution of this important 

 question, therefore, we must leave to the Historical Socie 

 ties of the present day, who are probably analogically op 

 posed to the opinion of that distinguished philosopher, 

 Humboldt, who says that the origin of the human race 

 from one or several pair can not be found out a posteriori, 

 and hence all investigation as to the cradle of the human 

 genus is mythological.* 



Thus unforeseen events, which startle most when most 

 unexpected, and which often tell upon the faith or the 

 destiny of people and nations, may sometimes occur, as was 

 the case in France some years ago, when, fifteen years after 

 the death of St. Simon the communist, his pupils and fol 

 lowers paid his tailor s bill, &quot; all tailors in France,&quot; says 

 Heine, &quot; began to believe.&quot; 



The ADMIRAL (Vanessa Atalantci), Fig. 50, is another 

 beautiful insect of this genus. It has black, velvet-like 



* In respect to this question, see the most elaborate philosophical 

 work of modern times : &quot; Die Aeyyptischc, und die Zoroastriche Glau- 

 lenslchre ah die aeltcsten Quellen unserer spcculatii cn Idecn, von DR. 

 EDUARD ROETII, ausserordentlichen Professor dcr Philocoplde an dar 

 Unwersitdt zu Heidelberg. Manheim, 1846.&quot; 



