IMG NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



proportionably artificial apparatus. The hypothesis which 

 appears to me most probable is, that in the grub there exist 

 at the same time three animals, one within another, all 

 nourished by the same digestion, and by a communicating 

 circulation, but in difierent stages of maturity. The latest 

 discoveries made by naturalists seem to favor this supposi- 

 tion. The insect already equipped with wings, is descrieJ 

 under the membranes both of the worm and nymph. In 

 some species, the proboscis, the antenna), the limbs, and wings 

 of the fly, have been observed to be folded up within the 

 body of the caterpillar, and with such nicety as to occupy a 

 small space only under the two first wings. This being so, 

 the outermost animal, which, besides its owqi proper charac- 

 ter, serves as an integument to the other two, being the far- 

 thest advanced, dies, as we suppc:-' and drops ofT first. The 

 second, the pupa or chrysalis, then ofTer^: itself to observation. 

 This also, in its turn, dies ; its dead and brittle husk falls to 

 pieces, and makes way for the appearance of the fly or moth. 

 Now if this be the case, or indeed AA'hatever explication be 

 adopted, we have a prospective contrivance of the most curi- 

 ous kind ; we have organizations three deep, yet a vascular 

 system W'hich supplies nutrition, growth, and life, to all of 

 them together. 



VI. Almost all insects are oviparous. Nature keeps 

 lier butterflies, moths, and caterpillars locked up during the 

 winter in their egg-state ; and w^e have to admire the vari- 

 ous devices to which, if we may so speak, the same nature 

 has resorted for the security of the egg. Many insects in- 

 close their eggs in a silken web ; others cover them with a 

 coat of hair torn from their own bodies ; some glue them 

 together, and others, like the moth of the silk-worm, glue 

 them to the leaves upon which they are deposited, that they 

 may not be shaken ofi^ by the wind, or washed away by 

 rain. Some, again, make incisions into leaves, and hide an 

 Qgg in each incision ; while some envelope their eggs with 

 a soft substance, which forms the first aliment of the young 



