142 London Insects. 



than three weeks ; and a boy may bring home a 

 Caterpillar with some hope of really seeing it fly 

 before he has forgotten its existence. 



Thus much of the attractions of the Vapourer all 

 of us can see for ourselves by simply keeping our 

 eyes open as we walk under the trees. There is one 

 more point of special interest which most of us 

 must be content to take on trust, but it should be 

 mentioned, if only to show that for any that have 

 eyes and skill for such things, there are ready at 

 hand in the wild nature of London materials for the 

 deepest as well as the lighter studies of Natural 

 History. 



Anatomists who have studied the changes of 

 insects (excepting only the resurrection of the dead, 

 of which, as shown by the incriptions in the cata- 

 combs, they have been from earliest Christian times 

 the emblem, there is nothing in the whole range of 

 creation so mysterious) have proved that, with very 

 few exceptions, there is a steady growth of all that 

 we should call the higher powers, from the egg, 

 through the Caterpillar and chrysalis, to the perfect 

 insect. The continuous advance, for instance, from 

 the Caterpillar to the higher intelligence of the 

 butterfly, as marked by the fuller development of 

 the nerves in the region of the brain, may be seen 

 very clearly in a beautiful series of ten microscopic 

 sketches, by Mr. George Newport, of the nervous 

 system of the Caterpillar and chrysalis of the 

 Tortoise-shell Butterfly, republished in Professor 

 Duncan's book on the transformations of insects, in 

 which any one interested in the subject may find 

 the results of much deep research in a very attractive 

 form. 



The female of the Vapourer Moth, and some 



