the fpace of fixteen or eighteen days, emerges the 
complete infecft. 
The papilionaceous infers in general, foon after 
their enlargement from the chryfalis, and commonly 
during the firft flight they take, difcharge fome 
drops of a coloured fluid, which in many fpecies is 
of a red, more or lefs intenfe. This may be fre¬ 
quently obferved in fome of the molt common fpe¬ 
cies, as the P: urticae, Atalanta, Polychloros, &c. 
and is a circumftance which, exclufive of its ana¬ 
logy to the fame procefs of nature in other animals, 
is peculiarly worthy of attention from the explana¬ 
tion which it affords of a phenomenon fometimes 
conlidered both in ancient and modern times in the 
light of a prodigy, viz. the defcent of red drops 
from the air, which has been called a fhower of 
blood: an event recorded by feveral writers, and 
particularly commemorated by Ovid amongft the 
prodigies which took place after the death of the 
great dictator. 
<c Sxpe faces vifce mediis ardere fub aftris : 
“ Sxpc inter nimbos guttx cecidere cruentac.” 
With threat ning figns the low’ring (kies were fill’d, 
And fanguine drops from murky clouds diftill d. 
This highly rational elucidation of a phenome¬ 
non, at firft view fo inexplicable, feems to have 
been firft propofed by the celebrated Peirefc, who 
with his own eyes obferved the veftiges of an ap¬ 
pearance of this kind in France in the year 1608, 
and was clearly convinced of its real origin, viz. 
the 
