RECREATIVE NATURAL lil>i 



47 



No butterflies oamo from these chrysalis forms as usual. They 

 , ,1 of starvation, as winter yields but littlo indeed 



of tho delicate food required by tl. Heoond series of 



chrysalides wore therefore commissioned to keep the undeveloped 



-oots safely wrapped within their folds through tho cold and 



m* of tin", wint.-r. In tho May of this year, oaoh little cradle 



illiaut child to sport with the perfumed zephyrs. 



Thus, in tho course of a twelvemonth, the largo white butterfly 



goes through a twofold round of most wonderful changes. 



.stion hero will naturally arise. How does tho cabbage 



Kuttertly know that Bho must deposit her eggs on the cabbage? 



t'.-.-il on it, and can have no notion of tho food 



.r brood of caterpillars will require. Here ia another 



of tin' unanswerable questions which wo are accustomed to hush 



by the reply, " Oh, it in all instinct." Are wo ono whit the 



-or for such an answer P Well, what is to bo said ? Nothing ; 



;i plain confession, " We don't know why the butterfly always 



very plant which tho caterpillars will n 1." 



: butterfly may bo said to have four epochs in its life the 

 egg state, tho caterpillar, tho chrysalis, and the fly. Wo have 

 1 tho term chrysalis, what docs it mean? Of course all 

 readers know that it is the case or cradle in which tho caterpillar 

 takes the butterfly form. The word is derived from a Greek 

 term, signifying golden, and was originally applied to the most 

 richly-tinted envelopes of this insect. Sometimes tho name 

 (aurum, gold) is used to denote these bright forms. 

 Chrysalis is properly applied to tho butterflies only, tho word 

 pupa (a little thing) being tho more correct designation for tho 

 third state of other insects. Linnneus saw some resemblance 

 between the creature thus tightly packed up in its foldings, and 

 babies bandaged up in close mummy-like wrappers. He there- 

 fore employed tho term pupa to represent this stage of insect 

 life. Let the reader by all means look for some chrysalides, 

 and carefully examine them. Ho will sometimes see through 

 the fine covering, the body, legs, and wings of the infioct, 

 most marvellously packed up in its case. The antennae, or 

 feelers, as they are wrongly called, are placed in a line with 

 the legs. Tho long tongue, too, strange as it may sound, is 

 placed straight between the legs ; and the wings make a very 

 small but very distinct package. The various parts of the 

 butterfly may often be seen even in the interior of the cater- 

 pillar itself, which is thus but the living covering of tho yet 

 undeveloped purple emperor or peacock. 



Has the reader ever seen a butterfly " coming out " into the 

 world ? Let him take the first opportunity, then, of witnessing 

 the operation. How is it effected? The cradle cracks, the 

 wrappers are torn, and the fly extricates itself, standing like a 

 thing most forlorn. No mother is near to " introduce " the 

 stranger ; not a single friend to give help the young butterfly 

 is indeed coldly received by the world. Her very wings are 

 puny things, and her limbs look as if rheumatic. But she has 

 a cheerful heart, soon gets over her first amazement, and one of 

 her earliest operations is to attend to her beauty. Suppose 

 the wings should not open " nicely ;" what if there should bo a 



:ise in that important part of her wardrobe ! her life would 

 be wretched then; the gentlemen would not look at her, and 



female of her race would condescend to sip from tho same 

 dower. In about an hour, however, all is generally right; tho 

 gorgeous wings become fully expanded by tho sun's heat, and 

 the beauty sails exulting in the full luxury of life. 



Have our friends ever seen a butterfly in the winter ? The 

 very question may seem absurd. How can the symbol of flowery 

 summer live amid the snows of December ? The surprise is : 

 natural ; but some butterflies do live through the season of frost ' 

 und tempest ; in other words, they hybernate ; sleep comes on j 

 them in some sheltered nook as winter approaches, and lasts, I 

 with a few breaks, till the return of spring. Sometimes a mild 

 day, even in January, will rouse the sleepers, and they come out 

 for a short airing, to tho astonishment of the schoolboy or the 

 young lady out for a walk. One of these hybernators is the 

 brimstone butterfly, common in parts of Devonshire, Suffolk, 

 and Essex. The small tortoiseshell butterfly is another species, 

 sometimes seen on warm days in winter sailing merrily along 

 under the shelter of some friendly hedge. 



Now let us pause a minute to examine the wings of our butter- 

 fly. Touch them not ; tho friction of the softest finger will act 

 like a rough file on the richly-tinted mosaic work of those wings. 

 We all know how " the feathers" are rubbed off by the slightest 



touch. But what are those so-called feather* '( Thejr are ra*Uy 

 scales, laid upon the wings much in the manner of slates or 

 tiles upon a roof. Get a microscope, and examine those of the 

 " Peacock" or " lied Admiral." No unaided eye can discern the 

 minute wonders. The brilliant, numerous, and diversified tint* 

 of the scales are beyond all verbal description and all artistic 

 imitation. Few will talk of human skill in the combination of 

 colours when those fairy-like tinting* have once astonished the 

 eye. Then consider the almost countless number of tinted scales 

 on ono wing. A mosaic picture has been exhibited, containing 

 unct pieces in one inch of work. Tho delicacy of snob 

 mechanism might well excite admiration. What shall we say 

 when wo find more than 100,000 living pictures and richly-dyed 

 scales on a square inch of a butterfly's wing f 



Let us now turn to the head of our butterfly. What do we 

 BOO there? Tho two "feelers," or antennae, at once chum a 

 !.";. By the form of these the butterflies are readily distin- 

 guished from moths. la the tip of the antennas knobbed 1 then 

 the insect is most likely a butterfly ; if not, it is a moth. What 

 is the use of theso organs P Hero we ask a favour from our 

 readers : will they oblige us by putting that question to the 

 most eminent philosopher of their acquaintance ': Should he be 

 able to answer decisively, will readers further oblige by commu- 

 nicating the replies with tho proofs? We regret to say that 

 these antennse are the teasers of naturalists. We know not 

 what to make of them. Whether tho provoking insect feels, 

 sees, hears, or smells with them, no one knows. A pretty con- 

 fession is this for men to make, who have weighed the earth, 

 and tested the minerals in the sun. " How like a god is man," 

 says Shakespeare. It may be so ; but we cannot forget that all 

 our science is puzzled by the " feelers " of a butterfly. Some 

 think the antennas contain a sixth sense unknown to human 

 beings ; but this is only an attempt to escape from a puzzle by 

 a guess. The experiment which suggested this notion was, per- 

 haps, the following : A female of one of the day moths, called 

 the " Kentish Glory," which had been bred from the chrysalis in 

 a house, was enclosed in a box, and taken into a wood frequented 

 by her species. The box being laid on the ground, in a short 

 time a number of the male moths settled on it. Yet a person might 

 have frequented that locality for days without seeing one of the 

 insects. This experiment has been often made with success. 

 By what sense did those moths discover tho presence of the 

 lady ? Not by sight she was hidden ; not by hearing -she 

 uttered no cry. It is no marvel if some ascribe this strange 

 power to a mysterious sense lodged in the antennae. Does any 

 one ask why the term antennae was applied to these organs ? The 

 word denoted among the ancients the yard or mast of a ship, 

 and was subsequently given to theso "feelers" from a fancied 

 resemblance to the projecting spars of a vessel. We have not 

 done with the head of the butterfly yet. Look next at the eyes. 

 Of course every one, in the year 1868, knows that the eye* 

 of all insects are compound; in other words, that what seems 

 ono eye only consists of many thousands. The reader would be 

 puzzled to count these butterfly eyes, even by the aid of a power- 

 ful microscope. But the calculation has been made by men who 

 have devoted years to the study of insect structure. The eye of 

 a butterfly contains, in reality, about 17,000 eyelets, giving to 

 our gaudy insect 34,000 in all. Each little eye is a perfect 

 organ in itself, six-sided, or hexagonal, in shape, so that the 

 whole collection resembles the cells in a honey-comb 17,000 eyes 

 all arranged in that small space ! Yes, it is so. Some speculative 

 readers may inquire why this creature has been endowed with 

 eyelets in thousands. Wo must beg to be excused from answer- 

 ing so profound a question. Of course no one will suppose that 

 wlicn a butterfly looks on a female of his species he Bees 84,000 

 fluttering beauties before him. As the two human eyes do not 

 double objects, so the numerous lenses of the " Purple Emperor" 

 may combine to form but one image. But some of these insects 

 have also two simple eyes on the top of the head, so that we 

 must confess ourselves to be altogether inferior in the matter of 

 eyes to the " Swallow-tail " or the " Peacock." 



We must now take a look, with his permission, at the batter- 

 fly's month. The insect luxuriates in such refined food that 

 teeth are needless, and strong jaws not wanted. What does the 

 observer see in the month ? He finds a long tube, like a trunk, 

 and also notes that the organ can be folded up, like a watch- 

 spring, out of harm's way, when tho animal is not making its 

 breakfast on the delicious nectar of a summer flower. A closer 



