BUTTERFLY AND OTHER SCALY-WINGED INSECTS. 121 



end of summer one may find the great green worm in the 

 same place. The body is round, fat, and smooth; there are 

 twelve segments behind the head. From the top of the 

 segment next to the head is projected, when the caterpillar 

 is disturbed, a singular V-shaped yellow organ, which sends 

 out a disagreeable smell, and is thought to be repugnant 

 to birds, ichneumon insects, etc. On each side of the 

 third segment is a large eye-like spot, peculiar to this spe- 

 cies. There are along the body nine pairs of spiracles, one 

 on the segment next to the head, and eight pairs on the 

 fourth to eleventh segments, or what correspond to the first 

 eight abdominal segments of the butterfly, the latter having, 

 however, but seven pairs of spiracles 011 the hind body. 



The caterpillar's eyes are minute, simple eyelets, only 

 useful, probably, in distinguishing day from night. This is 

 useful information, considered from a caterpillar's stand- 

 point, as most of them hide by day and feed by night. 

 That caterpillars are very hearty eaters goes without saying. 

 They perform prodigies of gastronomic skill. Did all the 

 caterpillars which are born into the world survive the vari- 

 ous ills and enemies they are heirs to, not a green thing 

 would be left on the face of the earth. The locust's mis- 

 sion would be ended. 



The jaws of the caterpillar are large, black horny affairs, 

 easily discovered. They are toothed on the cutting edge, 

 and thus pass through a leaf 

 somewhat like a circular saw. 



The silk is spun through the 

 tongue -like projection of the 

 under lip (Fig. 133, s). It is 

 secreted in two long sacs within 

 the body. The thread is drawn FIG. 133. Head of caterpillar of 



., p ,, ml -, Danais. ll>. labrum; id. mandi- 



Out by the lOre-ieet. ihe legs 011 bles; . antenna; m.r, maxilla; Im, 



the hind body, sometimes called 



prop-legs, are fleshy, not jointed, and end in a crown of 

 hooks which curve outward, enabling the caterpillar to 

 firmly grasp the edge of the leaf or twig of its food-plant. 



