EMBRYO BUTTERFLIES. 



133 



recorded many instances, besides the one under con- 

 sideration, of tiicir strange mistakes in guessing at 

 wiiat they cannot tatiiom. We prefer following Swam- 

 merdam, Reaumur, and Bonnet, in recording what 

 can be actually seen on examining the structure of 

 caterpillars. 



In a chapter of Swamnierdam's Book of Nature, 

 quaintly headed ' An animal in an animal, or the 

 butterfly hidden in the caterpillar,' we find the fol- 

 lowing details respecting the caterpillar of the large 

 cabbage butterfly [Ponlia bvassica). The egg of 

 this insect is of a yellow colour, Hask shaped, and 

 marked with fifteen ribs, converging towards the 

 smaller end, and extending a little beyond it. The 



Egg of the large cabbage butterfly {Pontin brassica), mngnified. 



caterpillar, but too well known from its ravages, has 

 sixteen feet, a vellow line along the back, and another 

 on each side, tlie rest ol" the body being bluish gray, 

 spotted with black; and the whole surface sprinkled 

 with thin, short, whitish hairs.* 



' In order,' continues Swammerdam, ' to discover 

 plainly that a butterfly is inclosed and hidden in the 



* l>;iy, Cat. Cantab., quoted by Swammerdam. See fig. a, 

 page 62. 



VOL. vr. 12 



