LEPIDOPTERA, 



143 



sustain its body in the air for a considerable time, in all the positions 

 imaginable, between the vertical and the horizontal, and downwards 

 again in any incline from the horizontal to the vertical. '' If one 

 considers," says Reaumur, " how far we are from having in the 

 muscles of our arms a force capable of supporting us in such 

 attitudes as these, we must own that the power of the muscles in 

 these insects is prodigious/' 



We will not dwell now on the variableness of the length of the 

 body of caterpillars ; on the fleshy appendages which are to be 

 observed on them ; on the hairs which either beautify or render them 

 hideous, according to the fancy of the observer \ nor on the various 

 colours with which they are decorated. We will notice these various 

 characteristics when giving the history of some species of remarkable 

 Lepidoptera. 



Many caterpillars are solitary ; others live in companies more or 

 less numerous, either when young, or during the whole of their 

 existence. 



With the exception of a great number of moths, which live at 

 the expense of our furs, or woollen stuffs, and leather or fatty 

 matters, all caterpillars feed on plants. From the root to the seeds, 

 no part of the vegetable is safe from their attacks. The greatest 

 number of the species, however, prefer the leaves. Those of the 

 most acrid and poisonous are no more spared than those of the 

 most harmless plants. There are caterpillars which eat the leaves 

 of the Euphorbia, or spurge, for instance. 



" I wished to try," says Re'aumur, *' the milk of this plant on my 

 tongue. It produced hardly any effect upon it at first ; but after a 

 quarter of an hour I found my mouth on fire, and it was a heat 

 which reiterated garglings with water during many hours in succession 

 could not quench. This continued till the next day. The heat 

 passed successively from one part of my mouth to another. I, 

 however, saw many of my caterpillars drinking greedily the great 

 drops of milk which were at the end of the broken stem I had 

 presented to them."' 



Is it not extraordinary that there are caterpillars which live on 

 the nettle? — that they eat the leaves of this plant, armed as it is 

 with stinging bristles, which cause such smarting and itching to the 

 skin, and produce blisters upon it. 



It has often been said that each plant has its own peculiar species 

 of caterpillar. All we can say is, that a certain number of vegetables 

 only suit certain caterpillars. The species which eat roots are few ; 

 those which live in the interior of stalks or stems which they feed on 



