20 ON SOME INSECT DEFORMITIES. 



per compiere la sua metamorfosi dello stato di bruco, ne altera siffatta- 

 mente il sistema primitivo, ne promuove una traspirazione straordinaria 

 de' fluidi esistenti nel bruco e soprattutto di quello che 6 necessario a 

 formare il bozzolo, e ne acceleri cose la sua metamorfosi d' isfarfallare. 

 Sarebbe stato a desiderare ebe per confermare in qualche modo 1' accen- 

 nata opinione si fosse tentato artatamente di attenere lo stesso effetto 

 col sottoporre diversi bruchi ad una temperatura calda, allorehe erano 

 vicini alia quarta muta. Interessante sarebbe il sapere se le farfalle 

 che abortirono avevano gli organi della generazione ben formati e 

 capaci come la falena bombice di accoppiamento e di mettere le uova 

 atte a sviluppare a suo tempo il bacolino. 



[translation.] 



An extraordinary case of a precocious transformation of the caterpillar of Bom- 



byx Mori into the moth. 



Mr. A. Farini, in Forli, has communicated to Mr. Barzoni an interest- 

 ing observation, published by Mr. Cesare Majoli, about the life, the 

 manners, and the education of the silk-moth. He was told by men 

 occupied with the breeding of silk-worms that it sometimes happens 

 that caterpillars before spinning a cocoon, therefore after the fourth 

 moult, were transformed into moths. He believed it to be only talk, the 

 more so as nobody had published anything about such a case. But he 

 convinced himself of the fact in 1792. Invited purposely to convince 

 himself by his own observation, he saw two boards filled with caterpil- 

 lars transformed in the preceding night into moths without having spun 

 cocoons, to the regret and deception of the owner. Recently the same 

 fact was observed, and in 1811 he received by Dr. Siboni two such 

 winged deformities, bred by Mrs. Rosatti, and examined by Mr. Farini. 

 These differ from the regularly developed silk-moth in the following 

 characters : The head is small, with two black compound eyes ; the 

 thorax similar to the third segment behind the head of the caterpillar, 

 and the abdomen similar to that of a caterpillar at the time of the 

 fourth moult, with just as many segments as the abdomen of the cater- 

 pillar ; the fore-wings somewhat elongated and narrowed ; the hind- 

 wings shorter and narrower; the antenna 1 grayish, compared with those 

 of the regular silk-moth. Mr. Majoli gives an hypothesis for the cause 

 of such a transformation, and believes it to be the excessive warm tem- 

 perature of the breeding-room. The caterpillar ready for transforma- 

 tion is prevented by the heat from producing the exudation of the 

 fluids which are necessary for the formation of the chrysalis, and is 

 obliged to transform directly into the moth. To ascertain his hypothesis 

 he should have made experiments to produce such a transformation in 

 an artificial way, by exposing caterpillars shortly before the fourth 



