94 



Creagurp at Natural ^t 



possession of every faculty granted to 

 race, he prepares to multiply and perpe- 

 tuate it. 



This last and most considerable metamor- 

 phosis is attended with a greater change in 

 the economy of the insect than of the pre- 

 ceding ; for not only the skin, but the teeth, 

 jaws, and even the cranium, are left behind. 

 Vhe work of Herold, on the transformation 

 of the Cabbage Butterfly, may be judiciously 

 consulted by the student; while Lyonet's 

 researches and great book on the caterpillar 

 of the Goat Moth, teach many particulars 

 of the transformation of a large moth. 

 There is a paper on the wings of LepMoptera 

 by Bernard Deschamps well worth the at- 

 tention of persons fond of the microscope 

 (see " Annales des Sciences Naturelles," 

 2nd ser., t. III. 1S35). The quantity of food 

 taken by them in their last state is compa- 

 ratively small to what they antecedently 

 devoured. For a short time after their ap- 

 pearance on the wing, they discharge some 

 drops of a red-coloured fluid ; but its ap- 

 pearance on the surface of the earth has at 

 different times been regarded, by vulgar su- 

 perstition, as drops of blood fallen from the 

 clouds, and was presumed to be portentous 

 of some heavy calamity. 



Various insects prey upon the Butterfly, 

 or hasten the approach of its dissolution. 

 Many species of Ichneumonidse perforate 

 the body of the insect while a caterpillar, 

 and there deposits its eggs ; and although 

 the caterpillar continues to live, and is 

 transformed into a chrysalid, no Butterfly 

 is produced from it, those internal parts that 

 were essential to its perfection being con- 

 sumed by the larvae of the ichneumon. 

 From the great fecundity and variety of the 

 insects of this genus, they probably would 

 soon cover the earth, did not nature provide 

 a bar to their increase by multiplying their 

 enemies : hence they are destined to become 

 the food of a great number of animals of 

 various kinds, some of which swallow them 

 entire, others macerate their bodies ; while 

 many accomplish their destruction by gra- 

 dually sucking their juices. It has been 

 calculated that a single pair of sparrows, in 

 order to supply themselves and their young, 

 may destroy three thousand three hundred 

 and sixty Butterflies in one week. 



" The clothing of the organs of flight in 

 the Butterfly excites the admiration of the 

 most incurious beholder. The gorgeous 

 wings of these universal favourites owe their 

 beauty to an infinite number of little plumes, 

 thickly planted in their surfaces, and so 

 minute as to seem like powder ; but which 

 are in fact an innumerable number of small 

 scales, varying in shape and length in dif- 

 ferent species, and discoverable only by the 

 assistance of a microscope. 



" The Butterfly requires no other food than 

 the nectareous juices which are distilled 

 from flowers, or the saccharine substance 

 which exudes from the leaves of vegetables ; 

 it will sometimes alight and suck the sweets 

 of ripe fruit that has been broken by its fall. 

 The skies are its proper habitation the air 

 is its element ; the pageantry of princes can- 

 not equal the ornaments with which it is 



invested, or the rich colouring that embel- 

 lishes its wings. There is nothing in the 

 animal creation so beautiful or splendid as 

 many species of these insects ; they serve to 

 banish solitude from our walls, and to fill 

 up our idle intervals with the most pleasing 

 speculations. 



" Butterflies fly generally only in the day. 

 They accompany the sun in his course, and 

 before he sets disappear. With us, says Mr. 

 Samouelle, many of the species are extremely 

 local ; and, from the shortness of their lives, 

 require greater assiduity in the collector, 

 and a wider range of search, than is gene- 

 rally supposed. As an illustration of this 

 fact, we must observe that the number of 

 Papilianidce found in England is about se- 

 venty-two. Of this number not more than 

 fifty are to be met with within twenty-five 

 miles of London ; and of these several are 

 confined to the vicinity of a chalk-cliff, or 

 are peculiar to a meadow or a certain wood. 

 Even in these situations their appearance in 

 the perfect state is limited but to a few days 

 and at a certain season of the year. Of the 

 remaining number, not found within this 

 distance from London, some are confined to 

 fens, nearly a hundred miles distant from 

 the metropolis, and others to the mountains 

 of Scotland ; but they are all equally limited 

 in the times of their appearance and the 

 shortness of their lives. There is also an- 

 other circumstance in the history of these 

 insects, which must not be passed over in 

 silence ; and that is, there are several species 

 which, from some hitherto unknown cause, 

 appear in the proper season, but in certain 

 years only, when they will be found in abun- 

 dance, and probably extended over a vast 

 tract of the country. These, however, dis- 

 appear, and not a single specimen is to be 

 found for a period of many years, when they 

 will again be seen as plentiful as before. 

 This is a circumstance that is not confined 

 to England, where it might be attributed to 

 our ever-varying climate, but occurs also in 

 tropical countries." Butt. Coll. Vade Mecum. 



" If you denude the wings of any Butterfly, 

 which you may easily do by scraping it 

 lightly on both sides with a penknife," as 

 Messrs. Kirby and Spence observe, "you will 

 be amused to trace the lines in which the 

 scales were planted, consisting of innumera- 

 ble minute dots : the lines of the under side, 

 in some cases, so cut those of the upper side, 

 as by their intersection to form lozenges. 

 With regard to the position of the scales on 

 the wing, they usually lie flat, but some- 

 times their extremity is incurved. But 

 though the general clothing of the wings of 

 Uftaoptera consists of these attle scales, 

 yet in some cases they are either replaced by 

 hairs or mixed with them. Thus, in the 

 clear parts of the wings of Heliconians, Atti- 

 ci, &c., short inconspicuous hairs are planted ; 

 in a large number of the Orders the upper 

 side of the anal area of the secondary wings 

 is hairy ; in several Crepusculars, where 

 there is a double layer, as before mentioned, 

 the upper one consists of dense hairs, except 

 at the apex, and the lower one of scales ; 

 and in most of them the scales of the pri- 

 mary wings are piliform, and the secondary 



