‘LEPIDOPTERA. Ext 173 
their flowers, roots, buds and seeds ; others attack the ligneous 
or hardest part of trees, softening it by means of a fluid which 
they disgorge. Certain species attack our woollens and furs, 
thereby doing us much injury: even our leather, bacon, wax 
and lard are not spared by them. Several confine themselves 
exclusively to a single article of diet; others are less delicate, 
and devour all sorts of matters(1). 
Some of them form societies, and frequently live under a 
silken tent, spun by them in common, which even shelters 
them during the winter. Several construct sheaths for them- 
selves, either fixed or portable. Others make their abode in 
the parenchyma of leaves, where they form galleries. The 
greater number are diurnal. The others never issue forth 
but at night. The severity of winter, so fatal to almost all 
Insects, does not affect certain Phalenex, which only appear 
in that season. 
Caterpillars’usually change their skin four times, previously 
to passing into the state of a nymph or chrysalis.. Most of 
them spin a cocoon in which they enclose themselves. A fre- 
quently reddish liquor or sort of meconium, which Lepidopte- 
rous Insects eject per anum, at the moment of their meta- 
morphosis, softens or weakens the extremity of the cocoon, 
and facilitates their exit ; one of these extremities also is gene- 
rally thinner than the other, or presents a favourable issue by 
the peculiar disposition of the fibres. Other caterpillars are 
contented with connecting leaves, particles of earth, or of 
the substances on which they have lived, and thus forming a 
rude cocoon. The chrysalides of the Diurnal Lepidoptera, 
ornamented with golden spots, whence the term chrysalis, are 
naked and fixed by the posterior extremity of the body. The 
nymphs of the Lepidoptera present a special character, 
of which we have spoken in our general observations on the 
(1) One of the most evident proofs of the divine providence is the perfect 
* coincidence of the appearance of the caterpillar with that of the plant on which 
it is to feed. ° 
