Of insects Johannes Goedaert ; done into English and methodized with the addition of notes ; the figures etched upon copper by Mr. Fr Place ...

Number. 7.

Few Catterpillars love Cabbage, and yet the Cat∣terpillars which are designed in the 7^th. Table: eat white Cabbage, but will not touch the Red Cabbage. Cold and moist weather is a very great enemy to them and soon destroys them, and they wither to nothing, but skin.

They have a double time of change; if that happen in Summer, it is at an end soone, but if it begin in Au∣tumne, it lasts untill the following Summer; I have ex∣perien••••d both changes.

One of the Catterpillars of the 7^th. Table changed the First of Iuly, and the 12••th. of August, the white

Butterfly came forth, represented in this Table; Ano∣ther of the same species, changed the 17^th. of December and remained a Chrysalys, till the 15^th. of May the Year following; when a Butterfly came forth; the very same with the former.

But another Year it happened, that I observed in the same Catterpillars a wonderfull thing, I tooke a cer∣tain number of these Catterpillars, at the same time: I fed them untill they of their own accord left their meat, and betook themselves to rest and for generation: after they had lain still 4 dayes, and did not move, I saw break forth of the Skins of each Catterpillar, on both sides the Animall 40. in some, 50. in some 52 little Wormes, which Wormes as soon as borne, made themselves little Netts: (or Baggs) of yellow Silk, beginning from the Taile to the Head, and shut themselves up in those N••tts in those Baggs they defend themselves from the cold of Winter.

The Catterpillar (out of whose Skin I said those Worms came) k••it all their little Netts together on a bunch that they might not be scattered, but that they might be turned into Flyes in Summer, in one place, and at once. The Catterpillar notwithstanding all these wounds, out of which 40, or 50 Wormes did break forth, lived without Food in my Closset from the 24^th. of Sep∣tember, untill the 28^th. of the same Month the 19^th. of October the above described Worms turned into so many little Flyes, and all of them dyed within 6 Dayes.

Another Catterpillar of the same Species after its Change, and that it had laine in it 14 Dayes, 2 Worms broke out of the forehead of it, and those two Wormes, in my sight in the space of an hour and a halfe, were changed into Eggs of an Amber colour: and 13 Dayes after that, out of each Egge came a middle sised Fly.

These things I have had the experience of, and have Observed them, not without admiration, because it

seems besides, if not against the usuall course of Na∣ture, that from one and the same Species of Animals, an Offspring of different Species shou••d be gendred, and that one and the same Animal shou••d procreate after divers manners, which thing yet is made manifest in these Catterpillers, as I have in few Words de∣clared.

••A double time of Chang••] The reason may be, for that those Catterpillars, as is Observed by our Author, are very tender; so that they which Change not, till the cold Weather come on, continue in the middle state or disguise, till the Spring follow∣ing: otherwise shoul'd they then change into Butterflyes and lay their Eggs, the Brood would perish with the Cold: Others there are to my knowledge, that are constantly hatch'd Catterpil∣lars the l••tter end of Summer, and not having time and Food to bring them up to a full growth, in order to their change, do club for a web amongst themselves, and continue a very small 〈◊〉〈◊〉 all winter, and when the leaves begin to break forth, they again come forth, feed a new, grow great ones, and Change: as the common Hedg Catterpillar, &c.

2. The numerous Rase are Ichneumon's. the two others are a sort of Flesh-fly: Both these I say are By-births, and not at all generated by the Catterpillar, but by their respective Parents: the Catterpillar which bo••e them, serving only as ••ood to them, not a Mother. It's to be O••served that the Flesh-Flyes, did feed upon the very substance of the Catterpillar, or Chrysalis, as they would upon Car••ion. That the Ichnenmo••s did not destroy the Mother, and love not corrupt meat, possibly the ve∣ry food of the Catterpillar digested by her, was their nourish∣ment

and not her bowels, who many days survived the strainge eruption of that brood; I have opened many Cat∣terpillers of that very Species, in which I have found of these worms, but how and when they are conveyed into their Bo∣dies, I do not yet understand.

3. That is very curious and particular, if there be no mistake in the thing, that our Author sayes: The Catterpil∣lar her selfe knit all the little Netts into one bunch, as though she acknowledged this Br••od to be her owne: and yet this is no proofe they are so; For we see in Birds, the like instance, the little Bird called the Hedg Sparrow will carefully and most affectionatly, bring up, as well as Hatch, the young Cuck∣ow.

Notes

• G. P. 1. Tab. 11.