272 QUALITY OF INSECT GILDING. 



Was it possible that our beautiful gold wing had issued from 

 one of these silken receptacles ? She certainly had, as to our 

 infinite satisfaction was fully, proved by the emergence, in a 

 few days, of a brilliant bevy of the like lovely and splendid 

 little creatures.* Their name we cannot tell, though it may 

 be known probably to wiser entomologists. ;; . '. y 



Let us examine now a little closer into the real quality of 

 these insect enrichments, which come certainly under the 

 range of that comprehensive proverb, " All is not gold that 

 glitters." The appearance in question is produced, says 

 Keaumur, by a transparent. brown varnish laid over a white 

 substance, as in the process of gilding leather by tinfoil 

 covered with yellow varnish/ the spots of silver being simu- 

 lated by the same substance covered with a skin more colour- 

 less. The silvery and golden gloss in scales of fish are 

 accounted for in the same manner. The white liquor under 

 them was called "essence d'orient " by the artificial pearl- 

 makers of the days of the above-named naturalist, and they 

 were accustomed to employ it in their manufacture. Why not, 

 says Rdaumur, employ in gilding the same matter instead of 

 silver ? Lister contrived to imitate the gilding of chrysalides 

 by putting a small piece of black gall in a strong decoction 

 of nettles. This produced a skin, which, when left on the 

 cup or paper, will, he says, " exquisitely gild it."f 



Alchemists, mistaking these gold and silver semblances for 



* See Vignette. t Kay's Letters. 



