64 THE BUTTERFLY VIVARIUM. 



name Eruca. But lie carried that view still further, 

 and conceiving that the Caterpillar not only con- 

 tained another form, hut that it was in fact a dis- 

 guised or masked creature, whose disguises were used 

 to conceal a perfect insect, he gave it the name of 

 larva, from the Latin word larva, a mask. And 

 when the structure of a Caterpillar is carefully 

 considered, the kind of disguise hy means of which 

 it enfolds and conceals from us the form of a perfect 

 insect, is shown to he of a nature which makes the 

 name thus conferred by Linnaeus remarkably feli- 

 citous. The smooth, orbless lobes of the head, for 

 instance, positively form a mask enclosing the many 

 facetted eyes and conspicuous antennae of the per- 

 fect insect, while the six or more skins with which 

 the body is enclosed are, with their fantastic mark- 

 ings or silken tassels, just so many masquerading 

 dresses, which completely conceal the form of the 

 perfect insect which lies beneath their folds, till 

 these disguising robes are shed in due succession. 



When a Caterpillar is about to undergo its 

 change to the pupa or chrysalis stage, a moderately 

 careful dissection would enable the anatomist to 

 discover the wings of the perfect insect in an already 

 distinct form ; and, even in the earlier stages, 

 Swammerdam succeeded in detecting not only the 



