244 METAMOEPHOSES OF MAN 



questionable, and worthy of every naturalist's atten- 

 tion. At this very period Siebold supported my 

 assertions, and replied to my appeal by publishing his 

 splendid work, which opened up an entirely new and 

 now actively explored field of research.* 



From the isolated observations on nocturnal Lepi- 

 doptera collected by Bernouilli, Treviranus, Suckow, 

 and Burmeister, and on the silkworm by Malpighi, 

 Herold, Curtis, and Filippi, it follow^ that certain 

 females which have had no connection with the males 

 can deposit eggs, which become developed, and give 

 rise to caterpillars as active and healthy as those 

 which spring from fecundated ova. M. Carlier, 

 member of the Entomological Society of France, 

 obtained as many as three original generations of 

 Liparis disjpar.f A belief in the virginal reproduction 

 of Psyche was popular for a long while among lepido- 

 pterists, and even at the present day there are many 

 species, the males of which are unknown. But we 

 may associate all these phenomena with those which 

 occur among the Aphides. Siebold being desirous 

 of explaining the matter, studied the anatomy of the 

 female Psyche, and unhesitatingly attributed the 

 opinions on this question to errors in observation. J 



* "Wahre Parthenogenesis bei Schmetteiiingen und Bienen." 

 1856. This work was analyzed fully by Young in the " Annales 

 des Sciences naturelles," 1856 ; and it furnished the chief materials 

 for Dareste's article in the "Bevue germanique " for 1859. I have 

 borrowed from it nearly all the details respecting facts which have 

 been the start-point to all the actual researches. 



f " Introduction a l'Histoire de l'Entomologie," by Th. Lacor- 

 daire. M. Carlier's last generation consisted of males alone, which, 

 as he observes, put an end to the experiment. 



X " Ueber die Fortpflanzungen Psyche." — Zeitschrift fur wissen- 

 schaftliche Zoologie, 1849. 



