The Life-History and Anatomy of Butterflies 
fanning its wings, while by the strong process of circulation a 
rapid injection of the blood into the wings and other organs takes 
place, accompanied by theirexpansion to normal proportions, in 
which they gradually attain to more or less rigidity. Hardly any¬ 
thing in the range of insect life is more interesting than this rapid 
development of the butterfly after its first emergence from the 
chrysalis. The body is robbed of its liquid contents in a large 
degree; the abdomen is shortened up; the chitinous rings which 
compose its external skeleton become set and hardened; the 
wings are expanded, and then the moment arrives when, on airy 
pinions, the creature that has lived a worm-like life for weeks 
and months, or which has been apparently sleeping the sleep of 
death in its cerements, soars aloft in the air, the companion of 
the sunlight and the breezes. 
ANATOMY OF BUTTERFLIES 
The body of the butterfly consists of three parts—the head, 
the thorax, and the abdomen. 
The Head.— The head is globular, its breadth generally exceed¬ 
ing its length. The top is called the vertex; the anterior portion, 
corresponding in location to 
the human face, is called 
the front. Upon the sides 
of the head are situated the 
lar gt compound eyes, between 
which are the antennce, or 
; feelers,” as they are some¬ 
times called. Above the 
mouth is a smooth horny 
plate, the clypeus. The la- 
brum, or upper lip, is quite 
small. On both sides of the 
mouth are rudimentary man¬ 
dibles, which are microscopic 
objects. The true suctorial 
apparatus is formed by the 
n V ri 
Fig. 29. —Head of milkweed butterfly, 
stripped of scales and greatly magnified 
(after Burgess): v, vertex;/, front; cl, cly¬ 
peus; lb, labium, or upper lip; md, mandi¬ 
bles; a, antennae; oc, eyes; Ik, spiral tongue, 
or proboscis. 
maxillae, which are produced in the form of semi-cylindrical 
tubes, which, being brought together and interlocking, form a com- 
