CHAPTER VIII. 



Voracity of Caterpillars, Grubs, and Maggots. 



INSECTS, in the early stage of their existence, may 

 be compared to an Indian hunter, who issues from his 

 hut, as they do from the egg, with a keen appetite. 

 As soon as he is successful in finding game, he gorges 

 himself till he can eat no more, and then laying him 

 down to sleep, only bestirs himself again to go through 

 a similar process of gorging and sleeping; just so the 

 larvae of insects doze away a day or more when cast- 

 ing their skins, and then make up for their long fast 

 by eating with scarcely a pause. Professor Bradley 

 calculates (though upon data somewhat questionable) 

 that a pair of sparrows carry to their young about three 

 thousand caterpillars in a week;* but this is nothing 

 when compared with the voracity of caterpillars. Of 

 the latter we have more accurate calculations than that 

 of Bradley, who multiplied the number of caterpillars 

 which he observed taken in one hour by the hours of 

 sunlight in a week. Redi ascertained by experiment 

 that the maggot of the common blow-fly (Musca car- 

 naria) becomes from 140 to 200 times heavier within 

 twenty-four hours ;f and the cultivators of silk-worms 

 know the exact quantities of leaves which their broods 

 devour. c The result,' says Count Dandolo, ' of the 

 most exact calculations is, that the quantity of leaves 

 drawn from the tree employed for each ounce of eggs 

 amounts to 1609 Ibs, 8oz ; divided in the following man- 



* Account of the Works of Nature. 

 t Esperienze de Insetti, p. 23. 



