. Insect transformations . ame manner as in the instanceof the chameleon fly just mentioned; but the wingsare compressed into a very small compass. Thisappears the more remarkable as the wings of themoth are large and conspicuous, and so like thewithered leaf of an oak, both in form and colour, thatthe insect would readily impose upon a carelessobserver. It is, we believe, the only British exampleof what have been popularly termed leaf insects, —which have given origin to the fanciful and untenabletheory of intentional deception on the part of Provi-dence. It was by opening one of these pupas
. Insect transformations . ame manner as in the instanceof the chameleon fly just mentioned; but the wingsare compressed into a very small compass. Thisappears the more remarkable as the wings of themoth are large and conspicuous, and so like thewithered leaf of an oak, both in form and colour, thatthe insect would readily impose upon a carelessobserver. It is, we believe, the only British exampleof what have been popularly termed leaf insects, —which have given origin to the fanciful and untenabletheory of intentional deception on the part of Provi-dence. It was by opening one of these pupas thatR< aumur first discovered the various sheaths appro-priated to the feet, the antennae, and the wings; thesheath of the sucker {hauslellum) being wanting, as it * Ribl iXat vol. ii, p. VI. 20 294 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. is obsolescent in the moth. It is furnished, however,with a pecuHar horn or projection on the forehead,— the palpi — which the theorists to whom we havealluded mifjht term its a. Pupa of lappit moth. J, under side of the moth, v/itli itsfeet folded up. f, side view of the same. We can demonstrate the same position still moreobviously in the chrysalis of a butterfly, — for ex-ample, in that of the peacock ( Vanessa lo), whose ca-terpillars feed on the nettle. This chrysalis is an-gular like the others of the genus, — the two termi-nating angles encasing the eyes, and the four lateralones the marginal folds of the wings, the contour ofwhich is disposed on what may be called the shoulderof the chrysalis {Ptero-thcca, Kirby). The legs, an-tenna^, and sucker, are folded down longitudinallyupon the breast, very similarly to what occurs in themoth just described. When the membranous cover-ing, which is thinner but more firm and clastic thanIndian paper, has been carefully removed, — selectingfor this operation an advanced period of the chrysalis,— the several members of the butterfly may be seen STRUCTURE OF VVVSl. 295 folded up
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