BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS. 



793 



sense which we are ignorant of: but this is 

 only explaining one difficult by another. 

 We "are not so ignorant of the uses ol the 

 trunk, which few insects of the butterfly kind 

 are without. This instrument is placed ex- 

 actly between the eyes ; and when the ani- 

 mal is not employed in seeking its nourish- 

 ment, it is rolled up like a curl. A butterfly 

 when it is feeding, flies round some flower, 

 and settles upon it. The trunk is then un- 

 curled, and thrust out either wholly or in 

 part; and is employed in searching the flower 

 to its very bottom, let it be ever so deep. 

 This search being repeated seven or eight 

 times, the butterfly then passes to another; 

 and continues to hover over those agreeable 

 to its taste, like a bird over its prey. This 

 trunk consists of two equal hollow tubes, 

 nicely joined to each other, like the pipes of 

 an organ. 



Such is the figure and conformation of 

 these beautiful insects, that cheer our walks, 

 and give us the earliest intimations of sum- 

 mer. But it is not by day alone that they are 

 seen fluttering wantonly from flower to flower, 

 as the greatest number of them fly by night, 

 and expand the most beautiful colouring at 

 those hours when there is no spectator. 

 This tribe of insects has, therefore, been 

 divided into Diurnal and Nocturnal Flies ; 

 or, more properly speaking, into Butterflies 

 and Moths : the one flying only by day, the 

 other most usually on the wing in the night. 

 They may be easily distinguished from each 

 other, by their horns or feelers: those of the 

 butterfly being clubbed or knobbed at the 

 end ; those of the moth tapering finer and 

 fi.K>r to a point. To express it technically 

 the feelers of butterflies are clavated : those 

 of moths are filiform. 



The butterflies, as well as the moths, em- 

 plov the short life assigned them in a variety 

 of ijoyrnents. Their whole time is spent 

 eit'ier in quest of food, which every flower 

 offers; or in pursuit of the female, whose ap- 

 proach they can often perceive at two miles' 

 distance. Their sagacity in this particular 

 is not less astonishing than true; but by what 

 sense they are 'thus capable of distinguish- 

 ing each other at such -^fauces, is not en*y 

 to conceive. It t. not l>" by the sight, since 

 such small objects as they are must be utter- 



ly imperceptible at half the distance at which 

 they perceive each IK her: it can scarcely be 

 by the sense of smelling, since the animal has 

 no organs for that purpose. Whatever be 

 their powers of perception, certain it is, that 

 the male, after having fluttered, as if care- 

 lessly about for some time, is seen to take 

 wing, and go forward, sometimes for t\vo 

 miles together, in a direct line, to where the 

 female is perched on a flower. 



The general rule among insects is, that the 

 female is larger than the male; and this ob- 

 tains particularly in the tribe I am describing. 

 The body of the male is smaller and slen- 

 derer; that of the female more thick and oval. 

 Previous to the junction of these animal?, 

 they are seen sporting in the air, pursuing 

 and flying from each other, and preparing, by 

 a mock combat, for the more important busi- 

 ness of their lives. If they be disturbed while 

 united, the female flies off with the male on 

 her back, who seems entirely passive upon 

 the occasion. 



But the females of many moths and butter- 

 flies seem to have assumed their airy irrm 

 for no other reason but to fecundate their 

 egg?, and lay them. They are not seen flut- 

 tering about in quest of food or a mate: all 

 that passes during their short lives, is a junc- 

 tion with the male of about half an hour; 

 after which they deposite their eggs, and die, 

 without taking any nourishment, or seeking- 

 any. It may be observed, however, that in 

 all the females of this tribe, they are impreg- 

 nated by the male by one aperture, and lay 

 their eggs by another. 



The eggs of female butterflies are disposed^ 

 in the body like a bed of chaplets; which, 

 when excluded, are usually oval, and of a 

 whitish colour : some, however, are quite 

 round; and others, flatted, like a turnip. 

 The covering, or shell of the egg, though 

 solid, is thin and transparent; and in propor- 

 tion as the caterpillar grows within the egg, 

 the colours change, and are distributed dif- 

 ferently. The butterfly seems very well in- 

 structed by nature in its choice of the pl:vit, 

 or the leaf, where it shall deposite its burden. 

 E eh egg contains but one caterpillar; and 

 it <8 requisite that this litile animal, when ex- 

 clude \, should be nearits peculiir provision. 

 The butterfly, therefore, is careful to place 



