312 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



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SOUTH AMERICAN LONG-WINGED 

 BUTTERFLIES 



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 different familiei 



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DIANA FRITILLARY 



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QUEEN OF SPAIN FRITI I.I.A K V 



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bodies), one or more of the first three pairs of pro-legs 

 may be rudimentary or absent, and the caterpillar 

 walks by arching its back at every step, in a way 

 that must be seen to be appreciated, though such 

 caterpillars (popularly called Loopers, on account of the 

 way they loop up their bodies in walking) are often 

 very active, and cover the ground much more rapidly 

 than one might imagine. Sometimes the claspers, or 

 last pair of legs, are modified into tentacles, which, 

 in the caterpillars of the Puss-moth and its allies, 

 contain retractile whips, used as weapons of defence. 



Caterpillars are very voracious, and increase in 

 size with great rapidity; and whenever their skin 

 gets too tight, after splitting it, they slip it off 

 (along with the lining of the stomach and intestines), 

 and after a few hours' lethargy, necessary to recover 

 from the debilitating effects of such a serious opera- 

 tion, and to give the new skin time to dry and 

 harden, they begin to feed again as voraciously as 

 ever. The number of these moults varies according 

 to the species ; when the caterpillar has attained its 

 full growth, it enters upon the third stage of its 

 life as a pupa, or chrysalis. 



A pupa means a doll, or swaddled baby, and is 

 a very appropriate name for the dark-coloured object, 

 cased in a horny skin, with no detached organs visible, 

 except the sheath for the proboscis in some of the 

 Hawk-moths, in which this organ is unusually long, 

 but with the separate cases of the wings, logs, etc., 

 of the future butterfly or moth plainly visible in the 

 sutures on its surface. The pup;u of some butterflies 

 have more or less metallic colours; and to these only 

 is the term " chrysalis" applicable. 



Some pupa: are naked, and those of most butter- 

 flies are cither suspended by the tail, or attached to 

 a branch by a belt of silk round the body. Those 

 of moths are generally formed either in an earthen 

 cell under tin- 

 are enclosed in 

 chiefly composed of silk, though sometimes moss or 

 chips of wood are worked into it. Other pupai 

 are found between leaves, or, in the case of cater- 

 pillars which feed in the wood of trees, or in the 

 stems of plants, in the galleries where they have 

 lived. 



When the perfect butterfly or moth is ready to 

 emerge, the pupa splits, and the insect works it> way 

 to the open air. Its body is limp and heavy, and the 

 wings are like little flaps of wet rag; but it discharges 

 a quantity of superfluous fluid, generally of a red 

 cnlnur, and llxi-s itself on a branch, or other con- 

 venient foothold, where its wings can hang downwards. 



surface of the ground, or else 

 an oval case called a " cocoon," 



