8 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



The bizarre personage, at fig. 4, turns to the graceful 

 White Admiral butterfly. 



The Purple Emperor begins his royal career in the 

 curious form shown at fig. 5 a shape unique among 

 British butterflies, as beseems that of their sovereign ; 

 and he carries a coronet on his brow already. 



All those beautiful little butterflies called the Hair- 

 streaks (fig. 9), the Blues (fig. 10), and the Coppers, 

 have very short and fat caterpillars, that remind one 

 forcibly of wood-lice a shape shared also by that small 

 butterfly with a Big name, the Duke of Burgundy 

 Fritillary (fig. 8), an insect very distinct from the Fritil- 

 laries above mentioned with thorny caterpillars. 



The legs of a caterpillar are usually sixteen in num- 

 ber, and composed of two distinct kinds, viz. of six true 

 legs, answering to those of the perfect insect, and placed 

 on the foremost segments of the body ; and of ten 

 others, called "prolegs;" temporary legs, used princi- 

 pally for strengthening the creature's hold upon leaf or 

 branch. 



Like the rest of its body, the caterpillar's head widely 

 differs in structure from that of the perfect insect, being 

 furnished with a pair of jaws, horny and strong, befit- 

 ting the heavy work they have to get through, and 

 shaped like pincers, opening and shutting from side to 

 side, instead of working up and down after the manner 

 of the jaws in vertebrate animals. This arrangement 

 offers great convenience to the creature, feeding, as it is 

 wont to do, on the thin edge of a leaf. It is a curious 

 sight to watch a caterpillar thus engaged. Adhering 

 by his close-clinging prolegs, and guiding the edge of 

 the leaf between his forelegs, he stretches out his head 

 as far as he can reach, and commences a series of rapid 

 bites, at each nibble bringing the head nearer the legs, 

 till they almost meet; then stretching out again the 

 same regular set of mouthfuls is abstracted, and so on, 

 repeating the process till a large semi-circular indenta- 

 tion is formed, reaching perhaps to the midrib of the 

 leaf ; then shifting his position to a new vantage ground, 



