582 INSECTA ORDER LEPIDOPTERA. 



with sixteen legs : six horny legs, corresponding to the true legs of the perfect 



insect ; eight ileshy legs, called prolegs ; and a terminal 



pair, called claspers. In the larvae of the Geometridw, and 



Larva,or J R t | ie ear jy stages of those of many other moths, the first 



a erp ar. three pairs of prolegs are obsolete, and the larvae arch the 



back at every movement, and are then called "loopers." 



Caterpillars are very voracious, and generally moult, not only their skins, 



but the lining of part of the internal respiratory and digestive apparatus as 



well, more than once before arriving at their full growth. 



The next stage is that of the pupa or chrysalis, which is almost motionless, 

 being encased in a tight-fitting integument, 011 the upper half of which the 

 outlines of the perfect insect may be observed. These are 

 Pupa, or not, however, enclosed in separate sheaths, except in the 

 Chrysalis. case of some hawk- moths, which have the proboscis enclosed 

 in a sheath which is detached from the main body of the 

 pupa. The pupa takes no nourishment, and it is either attached by threads 

 to a leaf, 1 etc, as in the case of most butterflies, or enclosed in a cocoon, 

 formed of silk in those species in which it is constructed on or above the 

 ground, and of agglutinated earth in most instances in which it is subterranean. 

 In due time the perfect butterfly or moth quits the pupa-case ; its wings, 

 which are at first soft and limp, soon expand to their full size ; the limbs of 

 the insect dry in the sun and air, and it flies away to join its comrades, and 

 to reproduce its kind. Most species, on emerging from the chrysalis, dis- 

 charge a fluid, which in former times, when they happened to be particularly 

 numerous, and when everything unusual was attributed to miraculous causes, 

 sometimes gave rise to the notion that a rain of blood had fallen. 



Entomologists in England have generally agreed to call the first few 

 families of Lepidoptera butterflies, and the remainder moths ; but there is 

 110 such distinction on the Continent, where they are 

 Rhopalocera, or generally called by words corresponding to day-butterflies 

 Butterflies. and night-butterflies. Butterflies are broad-winged insects, 

 often adorned with bright colours, and with comparatively 

 slender bodies. The antennae are almost invariably thickened into a knob at 

 the extremity, a peculiarity which is not very common in other insects, 

 though we meet with it in some saw-flies, flies, the ant-lions, and other allied 

 families of Neuroptera, and in many beetles, etc. Hence the butterflies are 

 often called Rhopalocera, or club-horns. They fly by day, and seldom, unless 

 disturbed, at dusk or at nighfc, though some Tropical genera are twilight-fliers, 

 or frequent the deep gloom of thick forests. Moths, on the other hand, have 

 the antennae of various shapes, sometimes thickened in the middle, or before 

 the end, but almost never clubbed at the extremity, and generally thread- 

 like or comb-like. Most moths fly at night, or, at least, not before dusk, 

 though a few are day-fliers, and may be seen frequenting flowers, among 

 butterflies. Many of them have stout bodies, and are of dull or subdued 

 colours. Butterflies often rest with the wings raised over the back, an attitude 

 rarely assumed by moths. The latter, however, more frequently rest with 

 all their wings spread out flat, while in the stout-bodied moths the fore-wings 

 often more or less cover the hind- wings when at rest, and are sometimes 



1 In the Nymphalidce the pupa is suspended freely by the tail ; in the other families 

 ' butterflies (except in the " 7 ^ " - - --"-* - *- *~ ~~i ^-~ 



girth round the body as well. 



of butterflies (except in the Hcsperiidce) it is generally attached by the tail, and by a 

 jody 



