The English moths and butterflies

by Benjamin Wilkes

On the different Manner of laying their Eggs.

All Butterflies and Moths lay a great Number of Eggs, some even as far as two or three Hundred. The Eggs of some Kinds are glutenous, or covered with a glewy Moisture; but those of others are not so: The glutenous are fixt (sometimes singly) on Grass, the Leaves of Trees, Shrubs, &c. and sometimes in Clusters after the same Manner. Some Sorts of Eggs are laid naked or uncovered, and others are cloath’d with a sort of Down, &c. Some Flies lay them in a Spiral Line, or Screw-like Figure, round a small Twigg, a Stalk of Grass, &c. And these may be pulled off entire, in Fashion like a Cylindrical Tube, and as hard as Horn: Others deposit theirs in the Chinks of the Barks of Trees, &c. &c. &c.

It is observeable, that the whole Process from the Egg, to the Fly, of many Species, is perform’d in about sixty Days. But the Goat Moth is an Exception to this Rule, being reported to be three Years proceeding from the Egg to the Fly State.