Goldsmith's Natural history : with notes from all the popular treatises that have been issued since the time of Goldsmith ... / [edited] by Henry Innes, with a life of Oliver Goldsmith by George Moir Bussey.

Oliver Goldsmith

Date:: [18??]

Credit: Goldsmith's Natural history : with notes from all the popular treatises that have been issued since the time of Goldsmith ... / [edited] by Henry Innes, with a life of Oliver Goldsmith by George Moir Bussey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

780/860 page 404

$I These vontrions hablls, with its slow, crawling motion, but still more sf.iigiiig like llial of nettles, which follows upon handling the greatest number o them, make these insects not the most agreeable objects of human curiosity However, there are many philosophers who have spent years in their contem pistion ; and who have not only attended to their habits and labours, but minutely examined their structure and internal conformation. The body of the caterpillar, when anatomically considered, is found composed of rings, whose circumference is pretty near circular or oval. They are gene- rally twelve in number, and are all membranaceous; by which caterpillars may be distinguished from many other insects, that nearly resemble them in form. The head of the caterpillar is connected to the first ring by the neck ; that is generally so short and contracted, that it is scarce visible. All the covering of the head in caterpillars seems to consist of a shell; and they have neither upper nor under jaw, for they are botli placed rather verticall5', and each jaw armed with a large thick tooth, which is singly equal to number. With these the animals devour their food in such amazing quantities ; and with these, some of the kind defend themselves against their enemies. Though the mouth be kept shut, the teeth are always uncovered; and while the insect is in health, they ar< seldom without employment. Whatever the caterpillar devours, these teeth serve to chop it into small pieces, and render the parts of the leaf lit for swal- lowing. Many kinds, while they are yet young, eat only the succulent part of the leaf, and leave all the fibres untouched ; others, however, attack the whole leaf, and eat it clean away. One may be amused, for a little time, in observing the avidity with which they are seen to feed; some are seen eating the whole day; others have their hours of repast; some choose the night, and others the day. When the caterpillar attacks a leaf, it places its body in such a manner that the edge of the leaf shall fall between its feet, which keeps it steady, while the teeth are employed in cutting it: these fall upon the leaf, somewliat in the matuier of a pair of gardener’s sheers; and every morsel is swallowed as soon as cut. Some caterpillars feed upon leaves so very narrow, that they are not broader than their mouths; in this case the animal is seen to devour it from the point, as we would eat a radish. § As there are various kinds of caterpillars, the number of their feet are various; some having eight, and some sixteen. Of these feet the six foremost are covered with a sort of shining gristle ; and are, therefore, called the shelly legs. The hindmost feet, whatever be their number, are soft and flexible, and are called membranaceous. Caterpillars, also, with regard to their external figure, are either smooth, or hairy. The skin of the first kind is soft to the touch, or probably that of the goUleii-tail {Portheaia Chiysorrhwtt), which in 1731-2, produced a similar alarm in France. Reaumur, on going from Paris to Tours, in September, 1730, found every oak, great and small, literally swarming with them, and their leaves parched and brown as if some burning wind had ]msse<l over them; for when newly hatched, like the^joung buH-tips, they only eat one of the membranes of the leaf, and of course the other withers away. These infant legions, under the shelter of their warm nests, sur- vived the winter in such numbers, that they threatened the destruction not only of the fruit-trees, but of the lorests,—every tree, as Reaumur says, being over run with them. 'I’lie Parliament of Pari.s thought that ra- vages so widely extended loudly called for their interference, and they accordingly issued an edict, to compel the people to uncater- pillar {(leclieniller^ the trees ; which Keau- nmr ridiculed as ini|>iactical)le, at least iiitbc forests. About the middle of May, however, a succession of cold rains produced so much mortality among the caterpillars, that the people were happily releaseil from the edict; for it soon became difficult to find a single individual of the species. In the same way the cold rains, during the summer of 1S29 seem to have nearly annihilated the lackeys, which in the early part of the summer, swarmed on every hedge around London. The ignorance displayed in France at the time in question, was not inferior to that re- corded by Curtis; for the French journalists gravely asserted that part of the caterpillars were'pioduced by spiders; and that these spiders, am’ not the cateqnllars, constructed the webs of the slime of snails, which they were said to have been seen collecting for the purpose ! “ Verily,” exclaims Reaumur, “ there is more ignorance in our age than one might believe.”—Insect Tkanskouj**- TIONS. •$