METAMORPHOSES OF BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 13 



round the middle of its body, and in due course the 

 larval skin cracks and the butterfly crawls out, expands 

 and dries its wings, and disports itself in fields and 

 lanes, a beautiful, though common, object. 



Enough has now been said about metamorphoses of 

 butterflies, and we therefore turn to the Hawk-moths, 

 or Sphinges ; and let us, in the first place, consider the 

 transformations of the Six- spot Burnet Hawk-moth 

 (Anthrocera filipendulse) . The eggs are deposited 

 amongst clover and bird's-foot trefoil at the end ot 

 July or early in August. In a short time the larvaB are 

 hatched, and commence feeding on the leaves of clover, 

 etc., but they grow very slowly, and whilst still quite 

 small, they cease feeding for the winter ; in the spring 

 they commence feeding again, but it is not till quite the 

 end of May or beginning of June that they are full fed. 

 They are then nearly an inch in length, very fat and 

 soft-looking, pale yellow, inclining to greenish at the 

 sides, with numerous large black spots, and the black 

 head is entirely retractile within the second segment. 

 This larva then prepares for its change to the pupa state ; 

 for this purpose it spins a complete, opaque covering of 

 silk, termed a cocoon ; the cocoon is elongate, pointed 

 at each end, of a pale yellow colour, and is generally at- 

 tached to a stem of a plant in a vertical position. Within 

 this cocoon, quite concealed from view, the larva under- 

 goes its change, and becomes a brown-black chrysalis. 

 In about three weeks' time the chrysalis pushes itself 

 through the upper part of the cocoon, so that nearly the 

 anterior half of the pupa projects, and then the skin 

 cracks, and the Burnet Hawk-moth creeps out and 

 ascends the stem to which the cocoon was attached, and 

 proceeds to expand and dry its wings. In a few hours 



