^v 



78 



Marvels of Insect Life. 



The prevailing tint of the morphos is a brilliant sheeny-blue of varying shades 

 on the upper surface of the wings ; but on the under sides we have various tints 

 of brown and white, to render the Insects less conspicuous when they are at rest 

 with the upper sides pressed together over the body. Some of them have longer 

 wings than others, and these are noticeably high-flyers, habitually taking altitudes 

 between twenty and a hundred feet above the earth. Those with deeper wings 

 fly lower, and even descend to the ground to suck the juices of ripe fruit that has 

 fallen. The high-flyers never descend to the ground. 



The life-history of these Insects may be very briefly indicated generally, as 

 it is impossible here to enter upon a description of the fifty or so species individually. 

 The eggs are globular and translucent, smooth or with slight ornamentation of the 



P''olo by] [£. Step. F.L.S. 



The Menelaus. 

 A. Brazilian species measuring six inches across the fore-wings. All the wings are entirely blue, with the exception of the inner margins 

 of the hind-wings, which are brown. The smallness of the body in comparison with the wing area is specially noticeable in this and the 

 next photograph. 



surface. The caterpillars are in shape much like those of our purple emperor, 

 with a forked tail, and the head divided in the middle. Some of them are con- 

 spicuously coloured with red, yeflow, black, and white, and clothed with spines. 

 These colours are doubtless of the nature of warnings to birds that they are not 

 palatable ; for although night-feeders, they congregate in open positions in the 

 day, as though conscious that their vivid colours will protect them from interference. 

 A further protection is found in the spines, which break off and enter the skin when 

 the caterpillar is carelessly handled. How secure they are in their exposed resting 

 positions is shown by the fact that the caterpillars of a common Brazilian species ^ 

 will congregate in a cluster of a hundred or more on the trunk of a tree, and those 



1 Morpho acliilles. 



