papilionaceous tribe undergo, and, in a particular manner, the changes just described, of the genus sphinx, afford a subject of the most pleasing contemplation to the mind of the naturalist: and though a deeply philosophical survey demonstrates that there is no real or absolute change produced in the identity of the creature itself, or that it is in reality no other than the gradual and progressive evolution of parts before concealed, and which lay masqued under the form of an insect of a widely different appearance, yet it is justly viewed with the highest admiration, and even generally acknowledged as, in the most lively manner, typical of the last eventful change. If any regard is to be paid to a similarity of names, it should seem that the antients were sufficiently struck with the transformations of the butterfly, and its revival from a seeming temporary death, as to have considered it as an emblem of the soul; the Greek word uxy signifying both the soul and a butterfly. This is also confirmed by their allegorical sculptures, in which the butterfly occurs as an emblem of immortality.

- Modern naturalists, impressed with the same idea, and laudably solicitous to apply it as an illustration of the awful mystery revealed in the sacred writings, have drawn their allusions to it from the dormant condition of the papilionaceous insects during their state of chrysalis, and their resuscitation from it; but they have, in general, unfortunately chosen a species the least proper for the purpose, viz. the silkworm, an animal which neither undergoes its changes under the surface of the earth, nor, when emerged from its tomb, is it an insect of any remarkable beauty; but the larva or caterpillar of the sphinx, when satiated with the food allotted to it, during that state, retires to a very considerable depth beneath the surface of the ground, where it divests itself of all appearance of its former state, and continues buried during several months; then rises to

the surface, and bursting from the confinement of its tomb, commences a being of powers, so comparatively exalted, and of beauty so superior, as not to be beheld without the highest admiration. Even the animated illustration taken from the vegetable world, so justly praised, as best calculated for general apprehension, must yield in the force of its similitude to that drawn from the insect's life, since Nature exhibits few phenomena that can equal so wonderful a transformation.

The helpless, crawling caterpillar trace
From the first period of his reptile race.
Clothed in dishonour, on the leafy spray
Unseen he wears his silent hours away;
Till satiate grown of all that life supplies,
Self-taught the voluntary martyr dies.
Deep underneath his darkling course he bends,
And to the tomb, a willing guest, descends.
There, long secluded in his lonely cell,
Forgets the sun, and bids the world farewel;
O'er the wide waste the wintry tempests reign,
And driving snows usurp the frozen plain.
In vain the tempest beats, the whirlwind blows;
No storms can violate his grave's repose.
But when revolving months have worn their way,
When smile the woods, and when the zephyrs play,
When laughs the vivid world in summer's bloom,
He bursts and flies triumphant from the tomb ;
And while his new-born beauties he displays,
With conscious joy his altered form surveys.
Mark, while he moves amid the sunny beam,
O'er his soft wings the varying lustre gleam.
Launched into air, on purple plumes he soars,
Gay Nature's face with wanton glance explores;
Proud of his various beauties wings his way,

And spoils the fairest flow'rs, himself more fair than they!
And deems weak man the future promise vain,

When worms can die, and glorious rise again?

DR. SHAW.'

Among the moths (phalana), the most remarkable of the British species are the clothes-moth, the seratella and the brown-tail moth.

See Dr. Shaw's Zoology, Insecta, vol, i, p. 216.

The history of the clothes-moth (phalena or tinea sarcitella) is extremely curious. The eggs are deposited by the parent moth on such substances as will furnish food for the yet unborn progeny; viz. woollen cloths, furs, &c. and on those in particular which lie neglected, and in dark undisturbed places. The young caterpillar no sooner quits the egg, than it begins to form its covering. It first spins a fine coating of silk around its body, and then attaches to it small pieces of the wool or fur, which it has cut off by means of its scissar-like teeth; these are fastened together by other threads of its own spinning, until it has formed a cylindrical covering, in which it ever after lives. It is open at both ends, and large enough in the middle to allow of its turning, so that it can put out its head for food at either extremity of the case. It lives entirely on the substance where it was born; and when it shifts its place, with its head and fore feet protruded, it drags its covering after it. When the caterpillar is somewhat increased in bulk, and finds its case too small, it sets about enlarging it with admirable skill. To lengthen it, the little workman begins by adding first to the silken lining, and then covering it with wool, as he had done in making it; and this he always does at both extremities. To widen it, he slits the case lengthways from the centre to one extremity, and fills it up with a new layer; he then does the same on the other side of the case; and proceeds, lastly, to the same process from the centre to the other extremity. All this may be beautifully elucidated by removing one of these insects to cloths of different colours, at the time when he is enlarging his case. The insect changes to a chrysalis in this covering, and the moth appears in August. It is small, and of a lead or dirty white colour, spotted with black. The most certain means of destroying this very noxious insect is, to expose the goods to the fumes or vapour of oil of turpentine, or to brush them with a brush dipt into

the oil. Tobacco fumes will destroy them, but not so certainly. September and October are the seasons for taking these means to destroy them, as the larvæ are then young, and many of them not cased.

The seratella moth in its caterpillar state, very like that we have just described, is often found on peartrees in great numbers. The best method of removing this moth is to watch the time of its appearance, and, as it rests among the leaves by day, to wash the trees well with a garden engine.

The brown-tail moth (phalana or bombyx phæorrhaus), so common in England, as to be found every year in considerable abundance, made its appearance in such great force in the years 1780, 1781, and 1782, that eighty bushels of them were collected in one day, in the parish of Clapham, for the purpose of being burnt. They were chiefly found on the hawthorn, oak, elm, blackthorn, rose-trees, brambles, and fruit trees.

It is curious to observe the eddies which small insects, and indeed all of the moth kind, describe around a light in the evening, and almost impossible to guess what attracts them so powerfully to their own ruin. A modern author says,

Why flutter so? why, foolish, run to death
Inevitable, in the perfid blaze

Of yonder watchful lamp? Does love prompt thee
Under these lofty walls to rove, and seek,

Through evening shades, thy carbuncle-eyed mate,
As learned sages tell? or, by the light

Suddenly dazzled, hast thou lost thy way

To groves and meadows, where to lead, unseen,
A safer life? or does thy little mind,

With greater projects swoll'n, dare to explore
This burning Ætna's mysteries? So did
Empedocles, and in the flames expired.

ORDER

IV.-NEUROPTERA;

Or nerve-winged insects, have four naked membranaceous wings, but no stings; and they differ from the last order, as their wings are without the minute

e

scales or down. The dragon-flies, ephemera or dayflies, and the phryganea, belong to this order.

The Ephemera or day-flies differ in many respects from all other insects. Their larvæ live in water (where earth and clay seem to be their only nourishment) for three years, the time they consume in preparing for their change, which is performed in a few moments. The larvae, when ready to quit that state, rises to the surface of the water, and, getting instantaneously rid of its skin, becomes a chrysalis. This chrysalis is furnished with wings, which it makes use of to fly to the nearest tree or wall; and there settling, it in the same moment quits a second skin, and becomes a perfect Ephemera. In this state all the species live but a very short time, some of them scarcely half an hour, having no other business to perform than that of continuing the race. They are called the insects of a day; but very few of them ever see the light of the sun, being produced after sunset, during the short nights of summer, and dying long before the dawn. All their enjoyments, therefore, seem confined entirely to their larva state.

For an account of the dragon-fly and the phryganea or spring-fly, see T.T. for 1820, Introduction, pp. xxxix-xli.

The slender-bodied dragon fly (libellula virgo), fig. 4, in our Frontispiece, is very common in stagnant waters and rivulets.

ORDER V.--HYMENOPTERA,

Or four-winged insects, with stings; including the gall-insects, ichneumon, hornet, wasp, bee, ant, &c. The greater part of the species of gall-insects (cynips) are produced from eggs deposited by the parent insects in the tender branches, or upon the leaves, of trees, in the spring of the year; others live concealed among the leaves, and some are bred in the bodies of other insects. The gall-insects,