146 THE INSECT WORLD. 
which all the Leotards of the present day, and those who are t¢ 
| sueceed them, can never accomplish. With such a persistency 
{ this caterpillar can sustain its body in the air for a considerabl 
time, in all the positions imaginable, between the vertical and thy 
horizontal, and downwards again in any incline from the horizonta 
| to the vertical. ‘If one considers,” says Réaumur, “how far wi 
are from having in the muscles of our arms a force capable of sup 
porting us in such attitudes as these, we must own that the powe 
of the muscles in these insects is prodigious.” 
We will not dwell now on the variableness of the length of thi 
body of caterpillars; on the fleshy appendages which are to b 
observed on them; on the hairs which either beautify or rende 
them hideous, according to the fancy of the observer; nor on th 
various colours with which they are decorated. We will speal 
again on these various characteristics, when giving the histor 
of some species of Lepidoptera remarkable in different ways. 
Many caterpillars are solitary ; others live in companies more 0 
y/ less numerous, either when young, or during the whole of thei 
existence. 
With the exception of a great number of moths, which live at th 
expense of our furs, or woollen stuffs, and leather or fatty matters 
all caterpillars feed on plants. rom the root to the seeds, no par 
of the vegetable is safe from their attacks. The greatest numbe 
uf of the species, however, prefer-the leaves. Those of the most acru 
and poisonous are no more spared than those of the most harmles 
plants. There are caterpillars which eat the leaves of the Euphorbis 
or spurge, for instance. 
*“T wished to try,” says Réaumur, ‘the milk of this plant o 
my tongue. It produced hardly any effect upon it at first; bu 
after a quarter of an hour I found my mouth on fire, and it wa 
a heat which reiterated garglings with water during many hous 
in succession could not quench. ‘This continued till the next dax 
The heat passed successively from one part of my mouth to anothe 
I, however, saw many of my caterpillars drinking greedily tu 
great drops of milk which were at the end of the broken stem | 
had presented to them.” 
Is it not extraordinary that there are caterpillars which live o1 
the nettle ?—that they eat the leaves of this plant, armed as it i 


