146 THE INSECT WOBLD. 



which all the Leotards of the present day, and those who are to 

 succeed them, can never accomplish. With such a persistency, 

 this caterpillar can 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 sup- 

 porting 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 speak 

 again on these various characteristics, when giving the history 

 of some species of Lepidoptera remarkable in different ways. 



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 Reaumur, " 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 



