690 



Microscopical Essays. 



are fine objecls.. Cicada, fanguinolenta, nervofa, interruptaj. 

 notone&a ftnata, minutiffima, head and claws of the nepa cine* 

 rea, or water- fcorpion, and, the whole variety of ci nieces, of 

 field bugs. The wings of butterflies and moths, the chry falls of ' 

 the common white butterfly, is extremely fine. 



I wifh it were in my power to invite the reader to confider the 

 pupa ftate of thefe infecls, as he would find them interefting in - 

 various points of view-. Perhaps the following paftage from an, 

 ingenious writer may have this effeci. 



" Some of tliefe creatures crawl for a time as helplefs worms 

 upon the earth, like ourfelves ; they then retire into a coverings 

 which anfwers the end of a coffin, or a fepulchre, wherein they 

 are invifibly transformed, and come forth in glorious array, with 

 wings and painted plumes, more like the inhabitants of the hea- 

 vens than fuch worms as they were in their former ftate. This trans- 

 formation is fo ftriking and pleafant an emblem of the prefent, in- 

 termediate, and glorified ftate of man, that people of the moft re- 

 mote antiquity, when they buried their dead, embalmed and in- 

 clofed them in an artificial covering, fo figured and painted, as 

 to referable the caterpillar in the intermediate ftate ; and as 

 Jofeph was the fir ft we read of that was embalmed in Egypt', 

 where this cuftom prevailed, it was probably of Hebrew 

 original." 



The eggs of moths and butterflies, particularly the phalaena 

 neuftria, vide Plate X, Fig, 1 to 5. The bodies and heads of 

 many libellulse. 



Many, 



