7 AGRICULTURE. 



BUTTERFLIES. We frequently find mistakes made in the use 

 of the words moths and butterflies. Both have scaly-wings as 

 we see when we catch them and find the fine powder from the 

 wings sticking to our fingers. This powder under a magnifying 

 glass appears like scales of different shapes and colors. There 

 may be several hundred thousand of these tiny scales on a single 

 wing. However, there are differences in the two insects ; the 



Fig. 30. Cabbage butterfly. The caterpillar above on the left; the chrysalis below 



on the left. 



moths usually fly about at night and the butterflies in daytime. 

 Then if we examine the feelers or antenna we see that those of 

 the moths are usually feathered, while those of the butterflies 

 are more or less thread-like and knobbed at the end. We can 

 readily observe the changes in the common butterflies. The 

 eggs are laid on the leaves of trees. Little, crawling, bristly 

 caterpillars are hatched from these eggs. They grow in size, 

 and it is only while in this larval state that that they are 

 destructive. The caterpillars do injury principally to the plants 

 of the garden, orchard, and forest. The pupa of a butterfly 

 is called a chrysalis. It is usually rough and angular, 

 whereas that of a moth is smooth and oval and often cov- 

 ered with a silky cocoon. From the chrysalis later on 

 there comes forth a beautiful butterfly. 



