16 BRITISH BUTTKRFLIE& 



CHAPTER II. 



"COMING OUT" — ICHNEUMONS — THE BUTTERFLY PERFECTED — 

 ITS WINGS — LEPIDOPTERA — MEANING OF THE WORD — MICR3 

 SCOPIC VIEW — NEW BEAUTIES — MAGNIFIED " DUST " — THE HEAl 



AND ITS ORGANS — THE TONGUE — THE EYES THE ANTENNA — 



THEIR USES— INSECT CLAIRVOYANCE — AN UNKNOWN SENSE- 

 FORMS OF ANTENNA — THE LEGS. 



We now arrive at the last stage, the consummation of 

 all this strange series of transformations ; for veritable 

 transformations they are to all intents and purposes ; 

 though some learned naturalists have discovered — or 

 imagined so — that the butterfly, in all its parts, really 

 lies hid under the caterpillar's skin, and can be distin- 

 guished under microscopical dissection; and that, there- 

 fore, the so-called transformations are merely the throw- 

 ing off of the various envelopes or husks, as they become 

 in turn superfluous, as a mountebank strips off garment 

 after garment, till lastly the sparkling harlequin is 

 discovered to view; or, in more exact language, they 

 consider these changes in the light rather of successive 

 developments and emancipations of the various organs 

 than as their actual transformations. Still, it seems 

 to me, the difference is chiefly one of terms. The 

 real wondrous fact remains undiminished and unex- 



