BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 



unworthy conception of a Creator. And such an assumption 

 becomes even grotesque when the facts are examined a Httle 

 more closely. The wings of ordinary moths are developed 

 within the much smaller wing envelopes of the chrysalis and 

 expand to their full size only after emergence. Before this 

 they can fit into the narrow space only by a complicated sys- 

 tem of pleating. But the rudimentary wing of the female 

 vapourer lies within a chrysalis wing far larger than itself. 

 Thus A, Fig 1, shows the out- 

 line of the chrysalis wing drawn 

 7 times larger and broader than 

 its natural size, and B, similarly 

 magnified, shows the outline of 

 the wing of the female moth, 

 which lies within it and remains 

 of the same size when the moth 

 has emerged. 



To the evolutionist these 

 facts mean that the useless 

 wings, being probably a source 

 of danger to the moth as well 

 as a waste of material, have been gradually reduced by 

 natural selection until they became first no longer and finally 

 much smaller than the chrysalis wing cases. These chrysalis 

 wing cases are also themselves reduced but, concealed in the 

 cocoon and less subject to selection, their shrinkage is not 

 nearly so great. 



The most wonderful Instance of butterfly mimicry that 

 we now know is the "swallowtail" — Pa pi I w dardanus — of 

 Africa and the neighboring islands. (See Fig. 2.) The male 

 is a pale-yellow black-marked butterfly, having, like most 

 swallowtails, long tails to the hind wing. A male from Mad- 

 agascar and one from Uganda are shown in the accom- 



[183] 



A B 



Fig. 1. — Outlines of rudi- 

 mentary wings of vapourer 

 moth. 



