190 STATES OF INSECTS. 



others (Gerura V inula, Sphinx Euphorbia, Noctua Ver- 

 basci), though their usual food is of a vegetable nature, 

 eat with great apparent satisfaction the skins which they 

 cast from time to time, not leaving even the horny legs. 

 This strange repast seems even a stimulating dainty, 

 which speedily restores them to vigour, after the painful 

 operation by which they are supplied with it Under 

 this head it will not be out of place to mention, that some 

 larvae of insects, which feed only on the juices of animals, 

 or the nectar and ambrosia of flowers, have no anal pas- 

 sage, and of course no feces. This is said to be the case 

 with the grubs of bees, wasps, the larvae oiMyrmeleon, &c. a 



vii. You will require no stimulus to induce you to at- 

 tend to the subject I am next going to enter upon, — the 

 Moulting, namely, of Larvae; or their changes of skin. 

 This, indeed, is a subject so replete with interest, and 

 which so fully displays the power, wisdom, and goodness 

 of the Creator, affording at the same time such large oc- 

 casion for nice investigation, that a pious and inquisitive 

 mind like yours cannot but be taken with it. In the 

 higher orders of animals, though the hairs of quadrupeds 

 and the feathers of birds are in many cases annually 

 renewed, the change, or scaling and increment of the 

 skin, is gradual and imperceptible ; no simultaneous re- 



so as to destroy the included animal, but rather to facilitate its egress. 

 Those also of Coccinella bipunctata which I lately bred from the e<Jg, 

 as soon as hatched began to devour the unhatched ones around them, 

 which they seemed to relish highly. I am inclined to believe, how- 

 ever, that this unnatural procedure was to be attributed to the cir- 

 cumstance of the female not having had it in her power to place her 

 eggs in the midst of Aphides, their proper food. 

 * N. Did. dtHist. Nat. xx. 359. 



