LAU 



LAR 



session ; which may be where the thief 

 has the actual possession, as a \valch de- 

 livered for the purpose of being pawned. 

 And the goods must be personal chattels, 

 not such as savour of the reality, such as 

 standing corn ; but corn cut, or trees 

 felled, are personal chattels, and may be 

 the subject of larceny; and there are 

 many, statutes which make stealing cer- 

 tain articles, as lead, iron, and other 

 things specified, affixed to the house or 

 freehold, larceny. Bonds and bills were 

 not such property as could be said to be 

 stolen at common law, but they are made 

 so by the statute law. And though it 

 cannot be committed of vile animals 

 which are wild by nature, yet the steal- 

 ing of domesticated and tame animals is 

 larceny, such as dogs, horses, fowls, and 

 even hawks. 



LAHIX, in botany, the larch-tree, a 

 species of Pinus. See the article PINUS. 



LARK. See ALAUDA 



LARVA, in natural history. The larva 

 state of insects, in general, denotes cater- 

 pillars of all kinds. The caterpillar state 

 is that through which every butterfly 

 must pass before it arrives at its perfec- 

 tion and beauty. 



The change from caterpillar to butter- 

 fly was long esteemed a sort of meta- 

 morphosis, or real change of one animal 

 into another; but this is by no means the 

 case The insects of the genus ichneu- 

 mon contributed much to establish and 

 perpetuate such absurd notions, in former 

 naturalists. These insects are parasites, 

 and deposit their eggs in the bodies of 

 the larvae of butterflies, moths, &c. The 

 young proceeding from those eggs nourish 

 themselves at the expense of the cater- 

 pillar, by feeding upon those parts which 

 are not immediately vital. The caterpil- 

 lar is at length killed, and the perfect 

 ichneumon comes forth, much to the sur- 

 prise of the observer, who, anticipating a 

 different result, viewed it as an instance 

 of equivocal generation. But the more ac- 

 curate observations of modern naturalists 

 have shown, that the egg of a butterfly 

 produces a butterfly, with all the linea- 

 ments of its parent ; only these are not 

 disclosed at first, but for the greater part 

 of the animal's life they are covered with 

 a sort of case or muscular coat, in which 

 are legs for walking: these only suit it in 

 this state, but its mouth takes in nourish- 

 ment, which is conveyed to the included 

 animal ; and after a proper time this 

 covering is thrown off', and the butterfly, 

 which all the while might be discovered 

 in it by an accurate observer, with the 



help of a microscope, appears in its pro- 

 per form. The care of all the butterfly 

 tribe to lodge their eggs in safety is sur- 

 prising. Those whose eggs are to be 

 hatched in a few weeks, and who are to 

 live in the caterpillar stale during part of 

 the remaining summer, always lay them 

 on the leaves of such plants as will afford 

 a proper nourishment; but, on the con- 

 trary, those whose eggs are to remain un- 

 hatched till the following spring, always 

 lay them on the branches of trees and 

 shrubs, and usually are careful to select 

 such places as are least exposed to ihe 

 rigour of the ensuing season, and fre- 

 quently cover them from it in an artful 

 manner. Some make a general coat ot a 

 hairy matter over them, taking the hairs 

 from their own bodies for that purpose ; 

 others hide themselves in hollow places, 

 in trees, and in other sheltered cells, and 

 there live in a kind of torpid state during 

 the whole winter, that they may deposit 

 their eggs in the succeeding springs at a 

 time when there will be no severities of 

 weather for them to combat. The day- 

 butterflies only do this, and of these but 

 a very few species : bu l . the night ones, 

 or phalens, all, without exception, lay 

 their eggs as soon as they have been in 

 copulation with the male, and die imme- 

 diately afterwards. 



Nothing is more surprising in insects 

 than their industry; and in this the cater- 

 pillars yield to no kind, not to mention 

 their silk, the spinning of which is one 

 great proof of it The sheaths and cases 

 which some of these insects build for 

 passing their transformations in, are by 

 some made with their own hair, mixed 

 with pieces of bark, leaves, and other 

 parts of trees, with paper, and other ma- 

 terials ; and the structure of these is well 

 worthy our attention. Yet there are 

 others, whose workmanship in this article 

 far exceeds these. There is one which 

 builds in wood, and is able to give its 

 case a hardness greater than that of the 

 wood itself in its natural .state. This is 

 the strange horned caterpillar of the wil- 

 low, which is one of those that eat their 

 exuviae, This creature has extremely 

 sharp teeth, and with these it cuts tiie 

 wood into a number of small fragments ; 

 these fragments it afterwards unites to- 

 gether into a case, of what shape it 

 pleases, by means of a peculiar silk, 

 which is no other than a tough and viscous 

 juice, which hardens as it dries, and is a 

 strong and firm cement. The solidity of 

 the case being thus provided for, we are 

 to consider, that the caterpillar inclosed 



