310 



Handbook of Nature-Study 



After a period varying from days to months, depending upon the 

 species of insect and the climate, the pupa skin bursts open and from it 



emerges the adult insect, often 

 equipped with large and beautiful 

 wings and always provided with 

 six legs and a far more complex 

 structure of body than character- 

 ized it as a larva. The insect never 



grows after it reaches this adult 



stage and, therefore, never molts. 

 Some people seem to believe that a 

 small fly will grow into a large fly, 

 and a small beetle into a large beetle; but after an insect attains its 



A butterfly chrysalis. 



A Luna moth. 



The delicate, exquisite green of ihe luna's wings is set off by the rose-purple, velvet border of the front 

 wings, and the while fur on the body and inner edge of the hind wings. Litilc wonder that it has been called 

 the "Empress of the night". The long swallow tail of the hind wings give the moth a most graceful shape, at 

 the same time probably afford it protection from observation. During the daytime the moth hangs wings 

 damn beneath ihe green leaves, and these long projections of the hind wings folded together resemble a 

 petiole, making the insect look very much like a large leaf. 



