The Life- History of a Butterfly 



honeycomb of the domestic bee. Roughly, about three 

 thousand of these lenses go to make up the two eyes. 

 As pointed out, their range of vision is comparatively 

 short, but within their range vision must be very keen 

 before, behind, above, and below. I once saw a 

 sparrow try to capture a Large Garden White in a street 

 in the town ; he darted at it again and again, much in 

 the manner of the ordinary spotted flycatcher, but the 

 butterfly seemed to have no difficulty in evading him, 

 and eventually he gave up the game. 



A small portion of the eye makes a good slide for 

 the microscope, but the individual lenses are hardly 

 visible through an ordinary hand-glass. On the top of 

 the head are one or two small simple eyes, which do not 

 look as if they could be of much service, but one never 

 knows, and the butterflies will not tell, although they 

 have long tongues. 



The tongue is a very pretty structure ; when not in 

 use it lies coiled up in spiral fashion like a watch-spring, 

 and is then well protected by two little side-covers 

 called the " palpi." Needless to say, the tongue cannot 

 sting. No moth or butterfly has a stinging organ ; 

 the tongue is too delicate for any " cut and thrust " 

 work. It is not difficult to mount a butterfly's tongue 

 for the microscope, and its examination well repays the 

 trouble. Particularly noticeable under the microscope 

 are the little bell-shaped suckers placed in long rows 

 near the tip. If you wish to make and examine a 

 cross section, take the head of a freshly killed specimen 

 and extend the tongue in a little melted paraffin wax ; 



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