BRITISH BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 



Introduction.— Butterflies and Moths, even in our own 

 temperate and oftimes sunless climate, are among the 

 most gorgeous, and certainly among the most wonderful, 

 of Nature's productions. Of airy flight, alluring or 

 modest colouring and marking, and passing through a 

 life-cycle — egg, larva, pupa, and imago — of unsurpassed 

 interest, there is small wonder that these insect-folk 

 make such a strong appeal to our sense of beauty and 

 imagination. I suggest that every girl and boy, and 

 grown-ups, too, for that matter, who are desirous of 

 becoming on intimate terms of acquaintance with either 

 butterflies or moths, would be well advised to rear some of 

 either, or both, so as to observe at first hand the changes 

 they undergo, and the interesting habits they possess. 

 In some species the transformation from egg to larva 

 (or caterpillar), larva to pupa (or chrysalis), and from 

 pupa to imago (or perfect insect), is performed in double- 

 quick time. In others the progress is slow, for the larva 

 may become quiescent during Winter, and commence 

 feeding in the Spring, or the pupa remains unhatched 

 for so long a time that one may well despair of the arrival 

 of the magic day of emergence. The great essentials 

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