ENTOMOLOGICAL. 59 



Lyonnet, the famous entomologist, counted 228 in the 

 head, 1647 in the body, and 2186 around the intestines, 

 giving a total of upwards of 4000. To the right use of 

 these muscles may be ascribed the amazing strength of 

 this singular caterpillar, which generally builds its tomb 

 in the willow trees. 



The author of "Insect Transformations" gives a 

 striking description of the uses to which these four thou- 

 sand muscles were once applied in the removal of a 

 body very many times its own weight. " We put the 

 caterpillar of the goat moth," he writes, " under a bell 

 glass which weighed nearly half a pound, and of course 

 more than ten times the weight of the insect, yet it 

 raised it up with the utmost ease. We then placed over 

 the glass the largest book we had at hand, 'London's 

 Encyclopaedia of Gardening,' consisting of about fifteen 

 hundred pages of strong paper, and weighing four pounds; 

 but this did not succeed in preventing the escape of the 

 animal, which raised the glass though loaded with the 

 book, and made its exit." 



In the human body there are about four hundred and 

 fifty muscles ; in the proboscis of an elephant forty thou- 

 sand, 'tis said,* but how many in the proboscis that is, the 

 tongue, properly speaking of a butterfly ! Here is one, it 

 is that of the sphinx genus the Convolvulus, a hawk moth, 

 which, after feeding upon green leaves in its first life, in 

 its perfect form sips the nectar contained in the bottom 

 of the cup of flowers. One of these moths, in the act of 

 feeding upon the flowers from which it takes its name, 

 is represented in our cut. Nothing in all nature surely 

 can be more suggestive or illustrative of human life than 

 the metamorphoses of this creature one of the largest 

 of our garden caterpillars : its grave, made by itself, as 



* Cuvier. 



