INTRODUCTION. 53 



which destroy the property and lives of their less 

 powerful companions, butterflies derive their suste- 

 nance from the nectareous juices and secretions of 

 fruits and flowers. Instead of grovelling on the 

 " dungy earth," they are generally seen either sport- 

 ing in the air, or resting on the disk of some expanded 

 flower, and all their habits are such as beseem " pure 

 creatures of the element." They are seldom noticed 

 but in fine weather, and never in profusion but when 

 the season is in its highest bloom, and their appear- 

 ance thus becomes associated in our minds with the 

 charms of external nature, and is connected with 

 those images of life and beauty which give rise to 

 many of the genial influences of summer. Several 

 species also contrive to outlive the winter, although 

 their frail forms seem but ill adapted to resist the 

 rigours of that inclement season, and issuing from 

 their retreats in the first warm days of spring, are 

 among the earliest and not least interesting heralds 

 of the " purple year *." These circumstances, to- 

 gether with tlie very striking manner in which they 

 exhibit the phenomena of transformation, have long 

 rendered them general favourites, and caused their 

 history to be investigated with gi-eater attention than 



* In the sunny clime of Italy, where it may be said that 

 nature never dies, and probably also in other southern 

 countries of Europe, most of the species which with us re- 

 tire on the approach of winter into the crevices of walls, 

 and other sheltered situations, are seen upon the wing 

 throughout even the colder months — at least we know that 

 it is so with Van. cardiiii Atalanta, and a few others. 



