HOW INSECTS GROW. 



XV 



Larva, 6 chrys 

 alis of a butterfly. 



daughters of the big ones. If every farmer and gardener knew 



this single fact it would be worth their while. The words larva 



and pupa will frequently occur in subsequent 



pages, and they should be explained. The 



caterpillar (Fig. 14, a) represents the earliest 



stage or babyhood of the butterfly, and it is 



called larva, from the Latin, meaning a mask, 



because it was thought by the ancients to mask 



the form of the adult butterfly. 



When the caterpillar has ended its riotous 

 life, for its appetite almost transforms its be 

 ing into the very incarnation of gluttony, it 

 suddenly, as if repenting of its former life as a 

 bon vivant, seeks a solitary cell or hole where 

 like a hermit it sits and leads apparently about 

 as useless an existence. But meanwhile strange processes 

 are going on beneath the skin; and after a few convulsive 

 struggles the back splits open, and out wriggles the chrysalis, 

 a gorgeous, mummy-like form, its body adorned with golden 

 and silvery spots. Hence the word chrysalis (Fig. 14, &), from 

 the Greek, meaning golden, while the Latin word pupa, meaning 

 a baby or doll, is indicative of its youth. In this state it hangs 

 suspended to a twig or other object ; while the silk worm, and 



others of its kind, previ 

 ous to moulting, or cast 

 ing their skins, spin a 

 silken cocoon, which en 

 velops and protects the 

 chrysalis. 



At the given time, and 

 15. Imago or adult Butterfly. after the body of the 



adult has fully formed beneath the chrysalis skin, there is an 

 other moult, and the butterfly, with baggy, wet wings, creeps 

 out. The body dries, the skin hardens, the wings expand, and 



