140 ARTICULATES: INSECTS. 



lars ; and when about to change into the pupa or chrys- 

 alis state, they cease eating, and many of them spin 

 around their body a silken covering called a cocoon, 

 others suspend themselves by silken threads, without 

 making a cocoon, and others enter the ground. When 

 the caterpillar is prepared for the change, it bursts the 

 skin on the back, draws out the forward part of its 

 body, and works the skin backward until it throws it 

 off; and now it is a chrysalis, shorter than the cater- 

 pillar, and at first sight it appears destitute of head 

 and limbs ; but on looking more carefully we perceive 

 traces of head, tongue, antennae, wings, and legs. 

 Some chrysalides are angular, but most of them are 

 smooth, rounded at one end, and tapering at the 

 other ; they remain motionless, or only move the hind 

 part of "the body when touched. At length the en- 

 closed insect is ready to come forth, and by many 

 movements it bursts the skin of the back, and the 

 Butterfly or Moth appears. At first it is soft, weak, 

 and moist, with small and shrivelled wings ; but soon 

 the moisture passes off, the limbs become firm, the 

 wings expand, and the perfect and beautiful insect 

 goes forth to feed upon water and the honey of flow- 

 ers. Butterflies and Moths do not increase in size ; 

 they are full grown when they emerge from the pupa 

 skin; and after having laid their eggs, they soon. die. 

 Butterflies fly in the daytime, have their wings erect 

 when at rest, and their antennae are thread-like, with 

 a little knob at the end, and their larvae do not spin 

 cocoons. Moths fly mainly at night, have their wings 

 when at rest more or less sloping like a roof, and their 

 antennae are variously formed, but never knobbed at 

 the end. 



