Butterfly Beauties. 



377 



Commonly confused with the gnats are the harlequin-flies,^ whose aquatic 

 grubs are well known as " bloodworms " in stagnant waters and the mud-banks 

 of rivers. The perfect fl\' mav often be seen flving up and down our window-panes ; 

 and when at rest it ma}' easily be distinguished from a true gnat by a trick it has 

 of raising its first pair of legs from its support. The true gnats commonly raise 

 the hind-legs under similar conditions. The eggs are laid in gelatinous masses, 

 as shown on page 375, attached to anything at the margin of the pond. From these 

 hatch out very minute "bloodworms," which ultimately attain a length of about 

 an inch, and are distinguished from ordinary gnat-grubs by their blood-red colour. 



Butterfly Beauties. 



Among the grandest of the known forms of butterflies are the members of 

 a genus that is confined to Tropical America. Fabricius more than a hundred 

 years ago named this genus morpho, to indicate their beauty of form. To beauty 

 of form are added brilliance of colour and magnificence of size. Although in 

 expanse of wing measured from tip to tip they are surpassed by the bird-winged 

 butterflies of the eastern tropics, in total wing area there is not much difference, 

 for whilst the bird-wings have these organs long and narrow, in the morphos they are 

 very deep. But in proportionate expanse of wing relative to the size of the body, 

 whose muscles have to work and control those wings, the morphos take the first place. 



Pholo bv] '•^- ^'^f' ^■^■^■ 



The Didius. 



The colouring of this species—which measures six inches across the fore-wings-is a beautiful pale blue with darker margins to all 

 the wings. 



1 Chironomus. 



