206 TASTE IN INSECTS. 



We come now, in the last case, to the important faculty 

 of taste, with which Insects of all classes, and in every 

 region of the earth, whether of propensities herbivorous 

 or carnivorous, are found to be no less exquisitely gifted. 

 Caterpillars are, according to their kind, either general or par- 

 ticular feeders; but even the former confine themselves to 

 particular classes of plants, and among the latter are some so 

 exceedingly nice, that (cormorants as they are) they would 

 sooner die of hunger than eat of leaves other than those which 

 furnish their accustomed food. The caterpillars of those 

 beautiful little meadow Buterflies, the " Blues" and the 

 " Coppers," which feed, in their infancy, on the grasses over 

 which they subsequently sport, are wont, we are told,* to 

 appropriate, each for its own peculiar fare, one of the various 

 species which are often intermingled in its native meadow, 

 that, most likely, on which, with instinctive foresight and dis- 

 cernment, the parent had deposited her egg. Other cater- 

 pillars, found sometimes on the poplar, sometimes on the 

 willow, have been found to eat only the leaves of its tree of 

 birth ; and, displaying a degree of discrimination yet greater, 

 we have observed in those of the Lime Hawk-moth a decided 

 preference for leaves from the very tree whence they were taken. 

 There are not wanting, however, amongst the liveried company 

 of leaf-eaters, examples of appetite infinitely more accommo- 

 dating; and among these, the tufted, plumed, and gaudy- 



* Rennie, Insect Miscellanies. 



