887 
P A P I L I O. 
fome convenient fpot, and, fecuring itfelf properly by a 
fmall quantity of fiiken filaments, either fufpends itfelf 
by the tail, hanging with its head downwards, or elfein 
an upright pofition, with the body fattened round the 
middle by a proper number of filaments. It then cafts 
off the caterpillar (kin, and commences chryfalis, in which 
flate it continues till the inclofed butterfly is ready for 
birth, which, liberating itfelf from the Ikin of the chry- 
falis, remains till its wings, which are at firft very fhort, 
weak, and covered with moifture, are fully extended ; 
this happens in the fpace of about a quarter of an hour, 
when the animal fuddenly quits the ftate of inactivity to 
which it had been fo long confined, and becomes at plea- 
fure an inhabitant of air. It is then that the infeft en¬ 
ters upon a more enlarged fphere of aftion, with increafed 
powers s he ranges from flower to flower, darting his 
roftrum into their neftaria for the delicious ftores they 
contain. Then too, in the full poffeflion of every faculty 
granted to his race, he prepares to multiply and perpe¬ 
tuate it. This laft and rnoft confiderable metamorphofis 
is attended with a greater change in the economy of the 
animal than any of the preceding; not only the Ikin, 
but the teeth, jaws, and cranium, are left behind. The 
large artery which pafies along the body may be confi- 
dered as a fuccefilon of different hearts employed in cir¬ 
culating the blood, which is at that important tera ob- 
ferved to flow in a different direftion from what it did 
before, like the foetus of a quadruped after birth. For¬ 
merly it circulated from the extremity to the head: it 
now purfues a courfe direftly oppofite. 
It is well known that the wings of butterflies are 
covered with a coloured powder; this powder, when ex¬ 
amined through a microfcope, is difcovered to be nothing 
but an aflfemblage of feathers of the moft elegant ftrufture, 
erefted on the furface of the wings, which gives them a 
great refemblance to the coloured plumes of large birds. 
How very minute mutt be the veflels which convey the 
fluids to the extremities of thefe feathers ! and how cu- 
rioufly mutt the nutritive fuftion of thefe animals be diftri- 
buted! And, as their nourifhment is only the moft 
exquifite juices of flowers, how fine mutt be the terref- 
trial particles contained in that neftar, and which is 
fpread overthe extremities and lurface of thefe feathers! 
See farther under the article Entomology, vol. vi. 
p. 834, 5, 6. 
Infefts have been long divided into tw'o categories, ac¬ 
cording to the ftrufture of their mouths, fome having 
teeth well developed and which can divide folid food, 
while others have trunks or fuckers adapted for liquids 
only. There are even fome which, at different periods 
of their lives, alTume both thefe forms of mouth; and in 
which a metamorphofis changes into fuckers, when in 
their perfeft ftate, what were mafticaters in their ftate of 
larvae: fucb, for inftance, are the butterflies, which feed 
by a double trunk only, generally fpiral, which they un¬ 
roll in order to introduce it into the bottom of the corol- 
lae of flowers to fuck the neftar; whereas caterpillars, 
which are butterflies not yet developed, have their mouths 
armed with ftrong teeth, with which they cut the hardeft 
leaves. Thus it has been fpppofed, that the caterpillar, 
in taking the wings, the long legs, and the beautiful an¬ 
tennae, of the butterfly, alfo took its trunk and loft en¬ 
tirely its teeth. M. Savigny, the member of the Inftitute 
of Egypt, has proved, by fome delicate and accurate ob- 
fervations, that this is not the cafe entirely; but that 
Nature, in this as well as in many other cafes, confines 
herfelf to altering certain parts in order to develop others 
from them ; thus producing effefts entirely oppofite by 
thefe Ample changes of proportion. He has difcovered, 
at the bafis of the trunks of the butterfly, two organs 
of extreme minutenefs, but which neverthelefs reprefent 
the teeth of the caterpillar ; at the back of the fupport 
of this fame trunk, he found two very fmall filaments, 
which appeared to him to be analogous to the maxillary 
palpse, fo that the two laminae of which the trunk is com- 
pofed are, according to M, Savigny, the points of the 
maxilla: extremely elongated, i. e. of the lower pair of 
grinders. Finally, the great feelers known to all natura- 
lifts are the palpse of the lower lip. The two fmall max¬ 
illary feelers had been already perceived in fome kinds 
of night-butterflies or moths ; but we are indebted to M. 
Savigny for the information that they exift in the whole 
family. Proceedings of the French Ipftitnte , 1814. 
Some of the fpecies of butterflies are gregarious, and 
live in fociety during every Itage of their exiftence; 
others live in that ftate during one period of their lives 
only. The duration of their life is various according to 
the weather; its wafmth accelerates every ftep of their 
progrefs, and cold retards all their developments : a 
worm produced in a certain period of the fummer lives 
only for three months, while the fame fpecies, if hatched 
a little later in the feafon, lives another year; hence 
Reaumur deviled a method of prolonging the lives of 
thefe animals greatly beyond their natural courfe. 
Butterflies of every fpecies are extremely prolific; a 
Angle female at one birth produces feveral hundred eggs: 
and the moft wonderful particular in the hiftory of thefe 
infefts, is the precautions by which they provide for the 
fecurity of the young ; fome tear off the down from their 
own bodies to fupply them with a covering. 
Various infefts prey upon the butterfly, or haften the 
approach of its diflolution. A certain fpecies of fly 
makes its way into its body, while yet a worm, and there 
depofits its eggs; and, although this worm continues, to 
live, and be metamorphofed into a chryfalis, no butter¬ 
fly is produced from it; thofe internal parts that were 
eflen tial to its prefervation being con fumed by the larvae 
of the fly. From the great fecundity and variety of the 
infefts of this genus, they probably would foon cover 
the furface of the earth, did not nature provide a bar to 
their increafe; by multiplyingtheir enemies: hence they 
are deftined to become the food of a great number of ani¬ 
mals of various kinds, fome of which fwallow them en¬ 
tirely, others macerate their bodies; while many accom- 
plifli their deftruftion by gradually fucking their juices. 
A Angle pair of fparrows, in order to fupply themfelves 
and their young, may deltroy, as is fuppofed 3360 but¬ 
terflies in a week. 
The vaft number of fpecies belonging to this genus, 
and the variety and richnefs of their colouring afford 
ample fcope to the painter for the exercife of his art. It 
was chiefly of thefe in lefts that Madame Merian exhibit¬ 
ed thofe exquifite drawings that conftitute the peculiar 
merit of her work. It is principally in America, the 
Eaft Indies, and China, that thofe fpecies are found 
which conftitute the ornament of our-colleftions. From 
the policy of the latter country, the ladies are circura- 
feribed in their amufements ; there they domefticate va¬ 
rious fpecies of this tribe of infefts, and make their eco¬ 
nomy and manners the principal ftudy of their lives ; 
large glafs apartments, furnilhed with proper food, being 
fitted up for the accommodation of thefe animals. 
The papilionaceous infefts in general, foon after their 
enlargement from the chryfalis, and commonly during 
their firft flight, difeharge fome drops of a red-coloured 
fluid, more or lefs intenle in different fpecies. This cir- 
cumftance,- exclufive of its analogy to the fame procefs 
of Nature in other animals, is peculiarly worthy of at¬ 
tention from the explanation which it affords of a phe¬ 
nomenon fometimes confidered, both in ancient and mo¬ 
dern times, in the light of a prodigy; viz. the defeent 
of red drops from the air; which has been called a 
fhower of blood : an event recorded by feveral writers, 
and particularly by Ovid, among the prodigies which 
took place after the death of the great diftator: 
Sape faces vifee mediis ardere Jub aflris, 
Seepe inter nimbos guttce ceciclere cruentas. 
With threatening figns the lowering fkies were fill’d. 
And fanguine drops from murky, clouds diftill’d. 
This 
