THE lURTH OF A P.U TTERFLY 



39 



CATERPILLAR HANGING FROM LEAF, JUST 

 CHANGING TO PUPA 



terflies. It may be seen in large num- 

 bers on almost any day of summer or 

 fall hovering" about the blossoms of the 

 milkweeds or flitting along country roads. 

 It is particularly numerous in marshy 

 places where milkweeds grow. It is one 

 of the largest of our butterflies, measur- 

 ing from three to four inches across the 

 wings ; its coloring is reddish brown with 

 black borders and veinings on the wings. 



The caterpillar, or larva, if we wish to 

 use the correct scientific name, is, when 

 full grown, about two inches long and a 

 rather pretty fellow. He is banded around 

 his body with stripes of yellow, black, and 

 white. When first hatched from the egg 

 he is very small, scarcely a quarter of an 

 inch in length. He grows very rapidly, 

 however, and his life as a caterpillar is 

 rarely more than twelve to fifteen davs 

 lons^. He spends this entire time on the 

 milkweed plant upon which he was born, 

 for this is his food plant, the leaves of 

 wdiich he eats. If he cannot get these, he 

 will starve to death : he cannot be forced 

 to eat the leaves of any other plant. 



He is very greedy and spends nearly 

 all his time, day and night, in eating, but 

 every second day he stops for from four 

 to six hours during which time he chang- 

 es his clothes or moults. This he does 



five times during his life as a caterpillar- 

 You see he eats so much and grows so 

 rapidly that his skin becomes too tight for 

 him, in the same way that a boy's clothes 

 become too tight, so he changes them 

 frequently for new ones. At such times 

 he remains almost motionless for about 

 two hours before and after the change. 

 The actual change itself is quickly made. 

 His skin simply splits down the back and 

 he crawls out of it with a brand new 

 skin. Is not this an easy way of getting 

 a new suit? 



If any of you would like to watch what 

 takes place during the various changes 

 that occur between the small caterpillar 

 and the perfect butterfly, find one of these 

 caterpillars (it will take but a short 

 search among the milkweeds) and take 

 him home. Do not handle him any more 

 than you can help, for this is likely to 

 hurt him. The best way is to cut ofi^ 

 the plant on which you find him and carry 

 him home on that. Place the plant in a 

 bottle of water and each day put in a 

 fresh stalk, allowing the caterpillar to 

 crawl from the old one to the new. Your 

 little guest will not try to leave you so 

 long as you keep him well supplied with 

 food, but be careful to supply the same 

 kind of leaves as those upon which you 

 found him feeding. 



Some day soon you will find him rest- 

 lessly crawling about the plant, stopping 

 now and then to raise his head and look 

 about, as though not quite sure where he 

 wants to go, or what he wants to do. 

 This does not mean that anything is 

 wrong with him, or that he has grown, 

 tired of his home and wants to leave. It 

 simply means that he has reached the 

 end of his existence as a caterpillar, and 

 that he is looking for the spot on the stalk 

 that will be the best and safest place to 

 stav (luring' the next stage of his career 



PLTPA CASTING OFF SKIN. 



