BUTTERFLY 



1023 



BUTTERFLY 



dead leaves to escape detection, but there is 

 in India a wonderful butterfly which has very 

 special markings that aid in this deception. 

 When its wings are spread they are spotted 

 with purple and orange, and are entirely un- 

 leaflike, but when the insect alights and folds 

 its wings the closest observer would have dif- 

 ficulty in distinguishing it from a dead leaf 

 still attached to its twig. A little extension on 

 the hind wing, like the "tail" of a swallowtail 

 butterfly, imitates perfectly the leaf-stalk, and 

 every rib and vein is present. See PROTECTIVE 

 COLORATION. 



Life History. The Greeks used the same 

 word, psyche, to mean butterfly and soul, for 

 to them the beautiful insect was the symbol 

 of the soul. Often in their pictures death was 



LIFE HISTORY OF A BUTTERFLY 

 (1) Eggs, highly magnified; (2) caterpillar; 

 (3) chrysalis; (4) butterfly. 



shown in the image of a butterfly flitting from 

 the dead man's lips the soul leaving the body. 

 The appropriateness of this charming concep- 

 tion is found in the life history of the butter- 

 fly, whose emergence from an apparent death 

 suggests strikingly the immortality of the soul. 

 For the butterfly undergoes a complete meta- 

 morphosis, living in four distinct forms before 

 it has completed its life history: the egg; the 

 larva, or caterpillar ; the pupa, or chrysalis ; and 

 the imago, or perfect insect. The first man 

 who ever watched a butterfly emerge from a 

 chrysalis, to all appearance dead, must have 

 felt it to be one of the strangest things he 

 ever looked upon; and the knowledge that 

 before this mummy-like stage came the dull, 

 groveling existence of a caterpillar could but 

 have made the wonder greater. Nor does the 

 wonder ever die; each time the transforma-- 



tion is watched it seems as marvelous as be- 

 fore. 



The Egg. The butterfly deposits its eggs 

 singly or in clusters upon or near the plants 

 on which the young must feed. The eggs 

 of some species hatch in a few weeks, or even 

 days, but others take months to come to ma- 

 turity. In cold climates the eggs deposited 

 in the fall are not injured by winter's severity 

 and do not hatch until spring. When they do 

 open there comes out, not a winged creature 

 which looks like the parent butterfly even as 

 much as a scraggly little bird resembles its 

 beautiful parents, but a crawling thing which 

 looks and moves like a worm. See CATERPIL- 

 LAR. 



The Larva. The larva, or caterpillar, the 

 second stage in the development, is familiar. 

 The huge green worms, the cabbage worms 

 and the fuzzy brown, yellow or white cater- 

 pillars are by most people as much loathed as 

 the butterflies are admired. Many of them 

 deserve the disgust which they occasion, for 

 they do much harm by destroying vegetation. 

 Most of the harmful caterpillars, however, are 

 the larvae (young) of moths and not of but- 

 terflies. A caterpillar does not eat casually 

 and often daintily, as does a butterfly, but ap- 

 plies itself industriously to this, its only task. 

 Trees may be almost stripped of their leaves, 

 the cabbage garden of the truck farmer ruined, 

 but the caterpillar must be fed, for it is stor- 

 ing up fat for the long weeks or months during 

 which it can have no food. The length of 

 time this caterpillar stage endures varies with 

 the locality, the season and the species. In 

 temperate climates it lasts from three to four 

 months, while in the cold regions the period 

 is often ten months, but the caterpillar never 

 fails to know when it is over and to make 

 preparations for the coming pupa stage. 



The Pupa. The caterpillars of moths spin 

 for themselves cocoons of silk (see MOTH ; 

 COCOON), but those of the butterflies shut 

 themselves up in hard, smooth cases, and are 

 known as chrysalids. For the most part these 

 are of a dull color, escaping detection by their 

 resemblance to the objects about them, but 

 some are golden and shiny; and it is these 

 which have suggested the name chrysalis, which 

 means gold. Some of these chrysalids hang 

 head downward from twigs or the under side 

 of leaves; others are suspended in a nearly 

 horizontal position by silken cords. 



In the pupa state the insect looks dead, but 

 it breathes through small pores and within its 



