LEPIDOPTEKA. 



165 



chrysalis to the perfect state ! Those great changes from the larva 

 state to that of the pupa, and from the pupa to that of the imago, 

 are accomplished with such rapidity, that these phenomena were 

 looked on as sudden metamorphoses, like those related in mytho- 

 logy. It has been thought also that there was in these changes 

 from one state to another a sort of resurrection. There is here 

 neither sudden metamorphosis, nor, as we will show, resurrection. 

 In fact, the chrysalis is a living being ; it indeed shows its vitality 

 by exterior movements. Under the old skin of a caterpillar 

 about to moult, under the envelope which is soon to be cast off, 

 the new integuments are being prepared. There is here then only 

 a change of dress. 



Some days before the moult, split the caterpillar's skin, and you 

 will find already beneath it the skin which is to take its place. 

 If some days before the transformation of the ^ t b 



caterpillar into a chrysalis, one opens it, 

 the rudiments of wings and antennae may 

 be discovered. If one is contented with 

 examining a chrysalis on the outside only, 

 all the parts of the future insect can be dis- 

 tinguished under the skin : the wings, the legs, 

 the antennoc, the proboscis, &c. ; only, these 

 parts are folded and packed away in such a 

 manner that the chrysalis can make no use 

 of them. It could not, moreover, make use 

 of them on account of their incomplete develop- 

 ment. Fig- 127 shows, after Heaumur,* a 

 chrysalis magnified and seen from its lower 

 side, on which we observe : a, the wings ; b b, 

 the antennae ; t, the trunk or proboscis. 



There is a moment when these parts, pressed Fig. 



lar 



m. - 



the 



rge Tortoise-shell Butter- 



One against each other, and as it were swathed fly ( ?*& poiyMoros), 



. magnified, seen from the 



up like a mummy, are very easily seen, for lower side. 

 they are, as we may say, laid bare. This moment is that in which 

 the pupa has just quitted the caterpillar's skin. It is then 

 still soft and tender. Its body is moistened with a liquid, which, 

 drying rapidly, becomes opaque, coloured, and of a membranous 

 * Tome i. p. 382, planche 26, Fig. 6. 



