654 



BUTTERFLY. 



of these, which he found to contain numberless cater- 

 pillars. (Travels in Mexico, p. 32.) 



The caterpillars of the Hesperiidae, or skipper 

 butterflies, differ from those of the other butterflies 

 by spinning a web-like covering of silk ; whilst that 

 of Doritis Apollo is still more different, since it 

 encloses itself in a kind of cocoon formed of numerous 

 leaves woven together with silken threads ; but the 

 chrysalides of the majority of butterflies are naked, 

 of angular form, some having the head terminated by 

 two short and conical horns, whilst others have this 

 part prolonged into a point. Different parts of the 

 body likewise present various eminences, of which the 

 number, form, size, and arrangement, differ materially. 

 Many species of butterflies are in this state remark- 

 able for the brilliancy of the golden or silvery spots 

 with which they are adorned, whence, in fact, the 

 names chrysalis and aurelia, by which they have been 

 distinguished, are derived. See the article AURKLIA. 

 The newly-formed chrysalis of a butterfly, when 

 opened, is found to contain only a mass of pap or 

 soft substance, in which no trace of the limbs of the 

 future butterfly can be observed ; yet we are able to 

 perceive, in the external covering of the chrysalis, all 

 the external organs of the future butterfly, in a very 

 short period after the skin of the caterpillar has been 

 cast off. Indeed Swammerdam (whose incomparable 

 dissections of various insects in their different states, 

 induced our celebrated English naturalist Ray, in his 

 " Wisdom of God in the Works of the Creation," to 

 place him at the head of those observers who had, by 

 their exquisite investigations, completely overthrown 

 the doctrine of spontaneous generation) very plainly 

 demonstrated, that even before the period when the 

 caterpillar is ready to become a chrysalis, all the 

 organs of the butterfly might be discovered within the 

 body of the former, thus satisfactorily showing that 

 the chrysalis is no other than " a beautiful and orderly 

 external representation of such limbs of the caterpillar 

 as have grown under its skin ; for though the limbs 

 now mentioned may be seen under the insect's skin 

 at the time it crawls and eats, in the form of a cater- 

 pillar, nevertheless it is in this state, on account of 

 their extreme tenderness and delicacy, a very difficult 

 matter to have a satisfactory view of them. They 

 are, in fact, as fluid as water, and they lie folded up 

 in many very tender membranes, interwoven with 

 pulmonary tubes." 



Hence, too, the incorrectness of the application of 

 the terms metamorphosis or transformation (implying, 

 as they certainly do, supernatural changes, similar to 

 those described in the fables of the old classic poets) 

 to the various stages of development exhibited by an 

 insect in its passage to the perfect state, will be at 

 once perceived. Swammerdam was indeed so well 

 aware of the impropriety of this, that we find him, so 

 long ago as the close of the seventeenth century, 

 observing, " The particulars here named being rightly 

 understood, the change, or, to express it more pro- 

 perly, the growth of the creature from the caterpillar 

 state into an aurelia, cannot but appear plain and intel- 

 ligible ; for the whole operation consists in this, that 

 the caterpillar casts its skin and shows the parts 

 which hitherto lay concealed, unfolds its limbs, and 

 arranges each in its right place with great regularity 

 and order. This is the whole operation to which so 

 many authors have substituted a monstrous meta- 

 morphosis, or absolute change of one creature into 

 another, not to be found any where but in their own 



misguided imaginations. What wonder then, if, in 

 their vain and idle attempts for some hundred years 

 past, to explain this metamorphosis, they should have 

 met with no success ? Thus it is that we are apt to 

 err, when, depending too much on our own reason 

 and imaginations, we sit down contentedly in our 

 studies, and feed ourselves with our own weak fancies, 

 instead of looking for truth into the magnificent works 

 of the Creator, though such inspection alone can give 

 us just notions of what we desire to know." 



On examining a chrysalis we are enabled to dis- 

 cover, encased in separate parts, the eyes of the future 

 butterfly, as well as its wings, of a small size, folded 

 upon the sides ; whilst arising from the head, and 

 laying along the breast, are to be observed several 

 slender divisions, which on being carefully examined, 

 are easily discovered to be the two filaments of the 

 proboscis or tongue, the coverings of the legs and of 

 the antennae, which are the outermost pair, and are 

 distinctly articulated along their whole length, and 

 are thickened towards the tip ; the joints of the 

 abdomen are all plainly marked by various indenta- 

 tions, but the lower legs and wings are not very 

 plainly visible, being concealed beneath the preceding 

 pairs of those organs. 



When the insect has remained under the form of a 

 pupa for a sufficient length of time to bring all the 

 various enclosed organs to a proper state of consist- 

 ence, the period of bursting the walls of its prison 

 may often be easily ascertained ; the golden colour 

 with which it had been adorned becomes indistinct, 

 and in those chrysalides which have the skin of a 

 sufficient thinness, the colours of the wings of the 

 enclosed butterfly may be distinctly perceived. The 

 extremities of the legs are now observed to move 

 very plainly, and at length this motion is so much 

 increased, and the wings are so enlarged, that it is 

 no longer possible for the dry and brittle skin which 

 covers the whole to withstand the movements and 

 dilatations of the enveloped butterfly ; it accordingly 

 gives way in a longitudinal slit down the middle of 

 the back, where there is usually a suture for this pur- 

 pose. This slit rapidly extends along the head, and 

 then down the breast on each side of the cases of the 

 antenna?, so that .the skin of the chrysalis is burst into 

 four distinct and regular formed pieces, one of which 

 had previously enclosed the antennae, legs, &c., 

 another the abdomen, and the remaining two the two 

 pairs of wings. The butterfly now makes its escape 

 out of this rupture its wings soon assume their full 

 size, the insect emits a quantity of reddish coloured 

 liquid, which has been regarded by the superstitious 

 as bloody rain, and in a short time it is enabled to 

 join its companions in the air. 



" Where he arriving round about doth fly 

 From bed to bed, from one to other border; 

 And takes survey, with curious busy eye, 



Of every flower and herb there set in order. 

 Now this, now that, he tasteth tenderly, 



Yet none of them he rudely doth disorder ; 

 Ne with his feet their silken leaves deface, 

 But pastures on the pleasures of each place." 



SPENSER. 



Some groups of butterflies are remarkable in their 

 perfect state for the very small and undeveloped state 

 of their fore legs, and it is a curious circumstance 

 that this should occur in those species which we have 

 already seen to be distinguished by their powerful 

 light and splendour of colouring, namely, in the 

 ''.unily Nymphalidce. There is another circumstance 



