CHAPTER VII. 



MEANS OF DEFENCE OF BUTTERFLIES. 



CREATIVE Wisdom has endowed this tribe of 

 Animals, like many others, with certain means of 

 defence suited to the condition in which they are 

 placed. Several larvae of butterflies will bite very 

 sharply, these are distinguished, by having at their 

 head a semicoronet of strong spines ; while others have 

 singular anal organs, which may have a similar use. 



A numerous host of these little animals escape 

 from birds, and other assailants, by their being so 

 like in colour to the plants which they inhabit, or the 

 twigs of shrubs and trees, their foliage, flowers, and 

 fruit, that their devourers cannot readily see them. 



The brilliant colours with which many of the 

 Papilios are invested, is, in all probability, another 

 means of defence, rather than a mere ornament, 

 they may dazzle their enemies. The radiant blue 

 of the upper surface of the wings of the gigantic 

 butterfly so prevalent in Brazil, the Papilio menelaus, 

 or Silver-blue Butterfly, (see plate 20) which, from 



