. Insect transformations . it in any other kind whatsoever. This fe-male, he subjoins, like a most prudent house-wife, never leaves her habitation, but is alwaysfixing her eggs to the surface of the web out ofwhich she has hei-self crept, thus affording a beau-tiful instance of industrious One De Geer, Mem., vol. vii, pp. 227 — 9.^ Swammerdam, pt ii, page 7. t J. R. DEPOSITIONS OF EGGS. 95 reason for this is, that the female of this mothhaving only the rudiments of wings, a peculiarityremarkable in several other moths, she cannot shiftso readily about. But whatever may be tlip re
. Insect transformations . it in any other kind whatsoever. This fe-male, he subjoins, like a most prudent house-wife, never leaves her habitation, but is alwaysfixing her eggs to the surface of the web out ofwhich she has hei-self crept, thus affording a beau-tiful instance of industrious One De Geer, Mem., vol. vii, pp. 227 — 9.^ Swammerdam, pt ii, page 7. t J. R. DEPOSITIONS OF EGGS. 95 reason for this is, that the female of this mothhaving only the rudiments of wings, a peculiarityremarkable in several other moths, she cannot shiftso readily about. But whatever may be tlip realcause, there can be no doubt that tlie web serves tokeep the eggs Warm during winter; for though theyarc placed on the outside of the web, the \\ hole isusually under some projection of a wall or arm of atree, and the non-conducting property of the silk,both with regard to heat and electricity, must be ofgreat benefit to the eggs in preserving them in anequable temperature, and of course promoting theirearly I: I J ■ t ;/ \j/ - - - Vnpoiirer Molh (Or^jia antiqtw), male and female, ilie latter■wilhoi:t wings ; with the eggs laid upon the silken cocoon froniwhich the moilier has issued. We cannot better conclude these imperfect sketchesof the hybernation of insect eggs, than by an ac-count of the ingenious experiments made by Spal-lanzani and John Hunter, by exposing several spe-cies of these to great degrees of cold as well asof heat. It results from these experiments that intense cold, to use the words of Spallanzani, does not destroy the eggs of insects. The year1709, when Fahrenheits thermometer fell to 1°,is celebrated tor its rigour and its fatal effects onplants and animals. Who can believe, exclaimsBoerhaave, that the severity of this winter did notdestroy the eggs of insects, especially those exposedto its influence in the open fields, on the naked 96 INSECT TRANSFORM VTIONS. earth, or or on the branches of trees ? Yet, when thespring had tempered the
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