CATERPILLARS IN GENERAL, 



783 



or INSECTS or THE THIRD ORDER. 



CHAPTER CLXXXIV. 



OF CATERPILLARS IN GENERAL. 



IF we take a cursory view of insects in 

 general, caterpillars alone, and the butter- 

 flies and moths they give birth to, will make 

 a third part of the number. Wherever we 

 move, wherever we turn, these insects, in one 

 shape or another, present themselves to our 

 Some, in every state, offer the most 



view. 



entertaining spectacle ; others are beautiful 

 only in their winged form. Many persons, of 

 "which number I am one, have an invincible 

 aversion to caterpillars and worms of every 

 species : there is something disagreeable in 

 their slow crawling motion, for which the 

 variety of their colouring can never compen- 

 sate. But others feel no repugnance at ob- 

 serving, and even handling, them with the 

 most attentive application. 



There is nothing in the butterfly state so 

 be tutiful or splendid as these insects. They 

 serve, not less than the birds themselves, to 

 banish solitude from our walks, and to fill up 

 our idle intervals with the most pleasing 

 speculations. The butterfly makes one of 

 the principal ornaments of oriental poetry; 

 but in those countries, the insect is larger 

 and more beautiful than with us. 



The beauties of the fly may, therefore, 

 very well excite 'our curiosity to examine the 

 reptile. But we are still more strongly at- 

 tached to this tribe from the usefulness of one 

 of the number. The silk-worm is, perhaps, 

 the most serviceable of all other animals ; 

 since, from its labours, and the manufacture 

 attending it, near a third part of the world 

 are clothed, adorned, and supported. 



Caterpillars may be easily distinguished 

 from worms or maggots, by the number of 



their feet; and by their producing butterflies 

 or moths. When the sun calls up vegetation, 

 and vivifies the various eggs of insects, the 

 caterpillars are the first that are seen upon 

 almost every vegetable and tree, eating its 

 leaves, and preparing for a state of greater 

 perfection. They have feet both before and 

 behind ; which not only enable them to move 

 forward by a sort of steps made by their fore 

 and hinder parts, but also to climb up vege- 

 tables, and to stretch themselves out from the 

 boughs and stalks to reach their food at a 

 distance. All of this class have from eight 

 feet, at the least, to sixteen ; and this may 

 serve to distinguish them from the worm tribe, 

 that never have so many. The animal into 

 which they are converted is always a butter- 

 fly or a moth ; and these are always distin- 

 guished from other flies, by having their wings 

 covered over with a painted dust, which gives 

 them such various beauty. The wings of 

 flies are transparent, as we see in the com- 

 mon flesh-fly; while those of beetles are hard, 

 like horn : from such the wing of a butterfly 

 may be easily distinguished ; and words 

 would obscure their differences. 



From hence it appears, that caterpillars, 

 whether in the reptile state, or advanced to 

 their last state of perfection into butterflies, 

 may easily be distinguished from all other in- 

 sects ; being animals peculiarly formed, and 

 also of a peculiar nature. The transmuta- 

 tions they undergo are also more numerous 

 than those of any insect hitherto mentioned ; 

 and, in consequence, they have been placed 

 in the third order of changes by Swammer- 

 dam, who has thrown such lights upon this 



