LEPIDOPTERA. 165 
chrysalis to the perfect state! Those great changes from the larva 
state to that of the pupa, and from the pupa to that of the imago, 
are accomplished with such rapidity, that these phenomena were 
looked on as sudden metamorphoses, like those related in mytho- 
logy. It has been thought also that there was in these changes 
from one state to another a sort of resurrection. There is here 
neither sudden metamorphosis, nor, as we will show, resurrection. 
In fact, the chrysalis is a living being; it indeed shows its vitality 
by exterior movements. Under the old skin of a caterpillar 
about to moult, under the envelope which is soon to be cast off, 
the new integuments are being prepared. There is here then only 
a change of dress. 
Some days before the moult, split the caterpillar’s skin, and you 
will find already beneath it the skin which is to take its place. 
If some days before the transformation of the ee 
caterpillar into a chrysalis, one opens it, ; 
the rudiments of wings and antenne may 
be discovered. If one is contented with 
examining a chrysalis on the outside only, 
all the parts of the future insect can be dis- 
tinguished under the skin: the wings, the legs, 
the antennz, the proboscis, &c.; only, these 
parts are folded and packed away in such a 
manner that the chrysalis can make no use 
of them. It could not, moreover, make use 
of them on account of their incomplete develop- 
ment. Fig. 127 shows, after Reaumur,* a 
chrysalis magnified and seen from its lower 
side, on which we observe :—a, the wings; 46, 
the antenne ; ¢, the trunk or proboscis. 
There is a moment when these parts, pressed Fig. 127. — Ppa of the 
‘ r large Tortoise-shell Butter- 
one against each other, and as it were swathed — fty (Vanessa polychloros), 
4 x magnified, seen from the 
up like a mummy, are very easily seen, for lower side. 

| they are, as we may say, laid bare. This moment is that in which 
the pupa has just quitted the caterpillar’s skin. It is then 
still soft and tender. Its body is moistened with a liquid, which, 
drying rapidly, becomes opaque, coloured, and of a membranous 
* Tome i. p. 382, planche 26, Fig. 6. 

