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not do so it would be fatally imprisoned, in its future beetle state, 
within the mature and hardened shell, an event which the Gouger 
carefully guards against, though the horticulturist might regard it 
as a consummation devoutly to be wished. 
«/ 
The Dissipus-butterfly (Nymphalis disippus , Gdt.) an interest¬ 
ing account of which is given by Mr. Riley, in the first volume of 
the American Entomologist, lives in its caterpillar state, on differ¬ 
ent kinds of willow. In this state it passes the winter, inclosed 
in a willow leaf, rolled into a cylindrical case. But as the leaf 
would fall like the rest, when touched by frost, or be blown away 
by the wind, the insect fastens its footstalk with silken threads to 
the branch on which it grows, and thus securely rides through the 
frosts and storms of winter. 
The larvae of a beautiful East Indian butterfly, the Thecla Iso¬ 
crates, live in companies of half-a-dozen or more, in the fruit of the 
pomegranate, and there also pass the pupa state. But before 
changing to chrysalids, each larva cuts a round hole in the rind, 
through which the future butterfly, which itself has no teeth, but 
only a slender flexible proboscis, may be able to escape, and as the 
worm-eaten fruit would be likely to fall prematurely to the ground 
the larvae crawl out and make the stem fast to the tree with their 
web and then return and go through their transformations. 
Those moths whose larvae or caterpillars are leaf eaters, always 
lay their eggs upon that kind of plant or tree upon which it is the 
nature of their future progeny to subsist, though they have no 
other relation to the tree, and though the eggs do not usually hatch 
till after the death of the parent, and sometimes not till the follow¬ 
ing year. 
Many kinds of wasps exhibit a wonderful provisional instinct. 
The female wasp burrows into the ground or sometimes into rotten 
wood, constructs a cell at the bottom of the cavity and there de¬ 
posits her eggs. She then carries in insects which may serve as 
food for her future progeny. Some species take the additional pre¬ 
caution to disable but not kill the insects thus provided, so that 
her young may find themselves provided with fresh provisions. 
Having completed her task she closes the hole, and never again 
re-visits it, but shortly after perishes. 
Now are we to understand that these insects are really endowed 
with a prophetic vision? Do they know what will be their own 
