50 HISTORY OF 



of spring. That same power that pushes forth 

 the budding leaf and the opening flower, impels 

 the insect into animation ; and nature at once 

 seems to furnish the guest and the banquet. 

 When the insect has found force to break its 

 shell, it always finds its favourite aliment pro- 

 vided in abundance before it. 



But all caterpillars are not sent off from the 

 egg in the beginning of spring ; for many of 

 them have subsisted during the winter in their 

 aurelia state, in which, as we have briefly ob- 

 served above, the animal is seemingly deprived 

 of life and motion. In this state of insensibility 

 many of these insects continue during the rigours 

 of winter: some enclosed in a kind of shell, 

 which they have spun for themselves at the end 

 of autumn ; some concealed under the bark of 

 trees, others in the chinks of old walls, and 

 many buried under ground. From all these a 

 variety of butterflies are seen to issue in the be- 

 ginning of spring, and adorn the earliest part of 

 the year with their painted flutterings. 



Some caterpillars do not make any change 

 whatsoever at the approach of winter, but conti- 

 nue to live in their reptile state through all the 

 severity of the season. These choose themselves 

 some retreat, where they may remain undisturbed 

 for months together ; and there they continue mo- 

 tionless, and as insensible as if they were actually 

 dead. Their constitution is such, that food at 

 that time would be useless, and the cold pre- 

 vents their making those dissipations which re- 

 quire restoration. In general, caterpillars of this 



