the month of August on umbelliferous plants. The larve is solitary and glabrous; furnished with tentacles, annulate with black and green, and dotted with red; the pupe is yellowish.

4. P. Apollo. Wings entire, white, spotted with black; lower ones with four eyes above, and six beneath. This is also a beautiful insect, somewhat larger than our great cabbage butterfly; it inhabits Europe, and has been occasionally found in our own gardens. It belongs to the section Parnassii. The larve is solitary, furnished with tentacles, silky, black, with two red dots on the segment on each side; pupe slightly folliculate, ovate, blueish, with red dots on each side on the fore-part.

5. P. Brassica. Common large white, or cabbage butterfly. Wings rounded entire, white: tip of the upper pair brown, and (in the male) two brown spots. Inhabits Europe, and is known to every one. Larve cinereous, dotted with black, with three sul. phur lines; tail black; pupe pale-green, with three yellow lines, and three globular segments. A species of the Danai section.

6. P. Io. Peacock butterfly. Wings angular, indented, fulvous, spotted with black, and a large blue eye in each. An elegant specimen, inhabiting Europe and our own country. It belongs to the division nymphales. The larve is spinous, black, dotted with white, legs ferruginous: pupe ten-toothed, green with gold-dots, bifid behind.

7. P. Iris. Wings indented, brown with a blue gloss, and whitish interrupted band on each side; all with a single eye; the eyes on the upper pair above blind. Found in our own gardens and in Europe generally: belongs also to the nymphales. The male is spotted with white on the upper wings, and is without the eye. The larve is green with two horns, and oblique pale lines; pupe greenish, bifid at the tip.

[Linn. Fabricius. Turton. Puntolog.

SECTION IX.

Moth. Silk-Worm.

Phalena.-LINN.

In this genus of insects the antennas are found gradually tapering from the base to the tip: the tongue is spiral; there is no jaw, and the wings, when at rest, are generally deflected; flight nocturnal. Sixteen hundred species. These fly abroad only in the evening, and during the night, and feed on the nectar of flowers: the larve is active and quick in motion, mostly smooth, more or less cylindrical, and preys voraciously on the leaves of various plants: pupe quiescent, more or less cylindrical, pointed at the tip or at both ends, and is generally inclosed in a follicle. They are divided into the following sections:

A. bombyx. Antennas filiform; feelers two, compressed, reflected; tongue short, membranaceous, obtuse, bifid; larve sixteenfooted, often hairy; pupe pointed at the tip. These are subdivided again:

a Wings expanded. 6 Wings reversed. y Wings deflected. ♪ Wings incumbent. Wings convolute.

B. geometra.

Antennas filiform; feelers cylindrical; tongue projected, membranaceous, setaceous, bifid; larve eight or tenfooted; six of the feet pectoral, two caudal, and sometimes two subcaudal; pupe pointed at the tip. Thus again subdivided:

a Antennas pectinate.

6 Antennas setaceous.

y Wings forked, connivent.

C. noctua. Antennas setaceous; feelers compressed, hairy, the tip cylindrical and naked; tongue projecting, horny, setaceous, bifid; larve sixteen-footed; pupe pointed at the tip. Subdivided as follows:

a Wings expanded.

6 Wings flat, incumbent; thorax smooth. y Wings flat, incumbent; thorax crested. ♪ Wings deflected; thorax smooth.

Wings deflected; thorax crested.

D. hybloa. Antennas setaceous; feelers projecting, compressed, dilated in the middle; lip projecting, acute.

E. hepialus. Antennas moniliform; feelers two, reflected, hairy, between them is the rudiment of a bifid tongue; larve sixteenfooted, that feed on the roots of plants; pupe folliculate, cylindrical, and pointed at the tip.

F. cossus. Antennas short, filiform; feelers two, very short, cylindrical, reflected; without spiral tongue.

G. pyralis. Antennas filiform; feelers two, equal, naked, cylin1 drical at the base, the middle dilated into an oval, and subulate at the tip; tongue projected, setaceous, bifid; wings very obtuse, and slightly curved at the exterior margin; larve sixteen footed, rolling up the leaves to which it attaches itself.

H. tinea. Antennas setaceous; feelers four, unequal; larve found in houses, among linen and woollen cloths and furniture, in which it eat holes, and to which it is very destructive.

I. allucita. Antennas setaceous; feelers two, divided to the middle, the inner division very acute.

K. pterophorus. Antennas setaceous; feelers two, linear, naked; tongue exserted, membranaceous, bifid; wings fan-shaped, divided down to the base, and generally subdivided as far as the middle; larve sixteen-footed, ovate, hairy; pupe naked, subulate at the tip.

The greater part of this numerous tribe, when at liberty in the fields, only fly during the night, or towards the evening: when domesticated in boxes made for that purpose, they give indications, by their fluttering within, when the natural period of their activity approaches. During the day they remain quiet, and apparently reconciled to their confinement; they flutter throughout the whole extent of their prisons towards the close of day, and testify their impatience at their want of freedom.

All the butterflies are provided with a rostrum for gathering, and for the reception of their food; a great part of the moths are entirely destitute of such an organ, while in others it is so small

as scarcely to be discernible with the naked eye. This singular fact has been fully investigated by the indefatigable Reaumur, who, after examining many moths, with a strong magnifier, has not been able to trace the smallest vestige of a mouth. A considerable number, therefore, of these animals must pass the whole of their winged state without food; nor can they be destructive to vegetable or animal substances, except while they remain in the form of worms.

34

The larves or caterpillars from which the various species of moths are produced, exhibit nearly the same variety of appearance as the winged insects which spring from them. Some are large, while others are extremely minute; many are provided with ten, others twelve and fourteen feet; the largest and most common have sixteen. Some of the smaller caterpillars are smooth, and others covered with hairs, which produce an itching and an inflammation when they touch the human skin.

All the caterpillars of phalænæ, after having several times cast their skin, spin for themselves the materials of a habitation, in which they are to be transformed into chrysalises. Of all the inventions of insects to protect themselves during this state of imbecility, that practised by the silk-worm is most universally known; and if animals acquire a consequence or reputation from their connection with man, and the conveniences with which they accommodate him, this insect may challenge, perhaps, a larger share of it than any other animal whatever. Our luxury has brought silk into such general request, that it may now be deemed a necessary of life: the poor, in some countries at least, would find it almost impossible to procure the necessary articles of clothing, were woollen stuffs worn by all those who at present are supplied with silk.

The produce of the phalana mori, or common silk-worm, has been found most proper for the purpose of manufacturing. That glutinous substance with which the silk of this species is always covered, when it first comes from the worm, and which gives it that adhesive quality so proper for constructing their edifices, sooner dries than in that of any other insect. The cods constructed by some other species are so firmly glued together, that no operation can separate the threads. The produce of many

is

by far too fine for any purpose in our manufactories, while that of another class is too coarse.

Several very laudable attempts have been made, but hitherto without any considerable degree of success, to rear the silk-worm in Britain. The public have been informed, by a manufacturer, of Paisley, of his having prepared a web entirely of the silk produced by worms of his own rearing. And in the Transactions of the Society for the encouragement of arts, manufactures, and commerce, a number of very useful experiments are recorded with regard to the food and management of these insects.

Probably the want of a sufficient number of mulberry trees has hitherto rendered ineffectual the efforts of our countrymen to introduce and rear any considerable quantity of silk-worms. From the attempts that have already been made, it appears that the white mulberry is preferable to the black, in feeding; and that the latter is to be preferred to the lettuce. Twelve cocoons, the produce of worms fed upon the white mulberry, weighed seven penny-weights two grains; while an equal number of those that had been fed upon the black mulberry weighed only six penny-weights three grains; six penny-weights were obtained from the same number of worms fed upon common lettuce.

Endeavours to produce raw silk in our own country seem the more worthy of encouragement, as we appear to possess some advantages of which Italy and many other silk countries are destitute. In Italy the chrysalises so soon come to life, that it is necessary to destroy them, lest, by eating their way out, they should injure the silk. In order to effect this, they are collected and placed in heated ovens, where again the silk, without singular caution, is apt to be damaged. In our own climate, where every progression of the insect tribe is slower, there is sufficient time to wind off the silk without killing the chrysalis.

But beside the injury that may be done to the silk in Italy, from the length of time which it is necessary to keep the chrysalises in these ovens, they are there obliged to suffer the moth to eat its way out of the largest cones, in order to have eggs from the most vigorous and healthy. Hence they lose all the silk of these cones, which, in our own country, might be gathered while the moths are preserved. Thus we seem to possess two striking advantages,