452 
THE BUTTERFLT* 
The quantity of food taken by thefe animals in the it' 
laft ftate, is comparatively fmall to what they formerly 
devoured. For a fhort time after their appearance on the 
wing, their excrements are voided in a greater quantity, 
and red like blood ; this is, perhaps, the remains of that 
food, which they contained before their laft change. Its 
appearance on the furface of the earth, has at different 
times been regarded as portentous of fome heavy cala- 
mity, being fuppofed to be blood that had dropt from the 
clouds *. 
Some of thefe animals are gregarious, and live in foci- 
ety during every ftage of their exiftence ; others live in 
that ftate during one period of their lives only. The du- 
ration of their life is various according to the weather ; 
its warmth accelerates every ftep of their progrefs, and 
cold retards all their developemcnts : A worm produced 
in a certain period of the fummer lives only lor three 
months, while the fame fpecies, if hatched a little later 
in the feafon, lives another year ; hence, Reaumur, has 
devifed a method of prolonging the lives of thefe animals 
greatly beyond their natural courle. f. 
The butterflies of every fpecies are extremely prolific ; 
a fingle female at one birth produces feveral hundred 
eggs ; and the rnoft wonderful particular in the hiftory of 
thefe infers, is the precautions by which they provide 
for the fecuriry of the young ; fome tear off the down 
from their own bodies to l'upply them with a cover- 
ing t. 
Various 
* Yie de M. Pierefe par M. Gaffcndi. 
f Tom. 11. mem. I. 
} Reaumur, Tome II. mem, a. 
