OCR Text |
Show - e nt Tat In Insect. The en O'n.ogists have detected and duly no' a singular development ol the sen " tabte in insects of the butterfly but-terfly ft, v. The larvae of butterflies sndmot'ib p; at foods which are not adapted f . t nts and tastes of the perfect i: . "i which, in some instances, in-stances, ii: .L-iiiir,; ' obnoxious to the fully devalued cr it ir& Take, for an instance, the L tj . i ' hog nosed caterpillar," cater-pillar," which liv..- on the leaves of the prickly ash t.r"l r.bo makes life burdensome bur-densome to the o : i jpe grower. Its parents par-ents are Mr. an'l Mrs. Papilio Cres-phontes Cres-phontes of the ord;r Lepidoptera, family fam-ily Papilionidae, and are the largest and most beautiful butterflies found in the latitude of Missouri. The full grown Insect of this species Till not touch tbe leaves of either of tne trees mentioned above, but on them it deposits eggs, and when these hatch the substance of the leaves furnish the proper food for the larvae. Are we to infer from this curious curi-ous habit that the female butterfly of this species remembers her early existence, exist-ence, and from that argues that prickly ash and orange leaves are the propel food for her young, or are we to say that "instinct" guides her to a proper selection of food for her progeny? Is it not a fact that we attribute things to "instinct" because we are ignorant that is to say, because we do not know where "instinct" leaves off ai reaao logins?- St Louis Republic |