December 7, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



489 



of a small moth has been discovered living in the manner of 

 a parasite on a species of Lantern-fly. There are, however, 

 some caterpillars which subsist partially on the carcases of their 

 lesser brethren, and two noteworthy instances are the Satellite 

 (Scopelosoma satellitia) and the Dan Bar (Cosmia trapezina) ; 

 they are not at present sufficiently common to be of marked 

 utility. Certain of the diminutive moths in the genus Pinea 

 also deposit eggs in such situations that their larva are able 

 to prey upon the pupa of Lepidoptera. And this is pretty 

 nearly all we can say ; for though the orushed bodies of cater- 

 pillars have been made to yield a dye, and other species are, as 

 is well known, valuable as silk-producers, for neither of these 

 ciroumstances have they special claim on the horticulturist's 

 regard. 



The transformations undergone by these insects, taken as a 

 whole, are now too familiar to all intelligent persons to require 

 a detailed aooount in this place of the successive stages of egg, 

 larva, and pupa or ohrysalis, from which the imago, or mature 

 insect, is finally produced. As in every order, the general rules 

 are subject to some curious exceptions or variations ; but these 

 are invariable — namely, that every butterfly or moth goes 

 through the four stages — loDg or short, and that the number 

 of legs in the larva are six, and of olaspers or pro-legs never 

 more than ten nor less than four. The body, usually cylindri- 

 cal, is made up of twelve segments, the head being furnished 

 with simple eyes or ocelli, short palpi or feelers, and a pair of 

 jaws capable of biting- very effectively. The food of larva? in 

 the order is vegetable only ; and though they are not among 

 the most injurious of insects, their ravages are often peculiarly 

 noticeable, beoause they take in a large amount of sustenance, 

 often in a short space of time, and also sometimes assemble in 

 companies. The pupa of a butterfly or moth — whether it be 

 simply suspended, laid upon or buried in the earth, or enclosed 

 in a coooon — has no distinction of parts ; though it may be 

 angulated or variously shaped, yet the outline of the future 

 insect may be traoed upon its surfaoe in many instances'. 

 Whether the pupa state lasts for weeks or months, it is always 

 a period of inactivity ; the pupa neither eits nor moves — 

 excapt an occasional twirl, perhaps, when subjected to any 

 annoyance — till the time comes for the extrication of the imago ; 

 and in some species the moth has no small difficulty in disen- 

 gaging itself from a small or hard cocoon, Nature aiding its 

 strength and ingenuity sometimes by supplying a solvent fluid. 



Bat, taking as a specimen for investigation either a butter- 

 fly or moth, since it is mainly on the perfeot insect that we 

 rest our definition of the orders, we observe first that the 

 antennas are either clubbed as in the butterflies, spindle-shaped 

 as in the hawk moths, or feathered or thread-like as in the 

 bulk of the moths. Secondly, the four wings, rarely absent, 

 are, save in a few species with clear and membranous wings, 

 covered with scales (popularly called feathers, really some- 

 what akin to hairs), which by a very moderate magnifier we 

 can see are rooted in the wing and arranged in tile fashion. 

 Thirdly, the head is furnished with compound hairy eyes, and 

 the organs of the mouth take the form of a proboscis or sucker. 

 Fourthly, the thorax is stout and muscular, beoause on it de- 

 pend the movements of the wings and legs ; the abdomen, 

 though, flexible and usually ova), having little of the power 

 we find that portion of the body possesses in some of the 

 orders. Both thorax and abdomen are downy. Fifthly, the 

 legs are hairy and furnished with two olaws, in number six ; 

 the front pair abortive in several species of the butterflies. 

 And a passing explanation as to three or four English words 

 associated with the Lepidoptera is desirable. First with re- 

 gard to the oft-used word " butterfly." This has lately been 

 discussed in " Notes and Queries," and several suggestions 

 thrown out why " butter " might form part of the name of 

 these aerial creatures. It may have been because our fore- 

 fathers noticed them as abundant during what is called the 

 " butter " season, or because their wings were of the colour of 

 butter, as in some common species ; or because, so thinks one 

 author, they were believed to represent evil spirits, who oame 

 in that guise and bewitched the butter ! All these are rather 

 lame theories, and two suppositions are more probable — either 

 that the old name was " budder-fly," a fly that buds or bursts 

 forth from a pupa case which looks inanimate ; or else that 

 the name arose from the Saxon word bodda, applied to a 

 grub or crawling creature, and still existing in the term " bots," 

 well known to rearers of horses. The butterfly, then, would 

 mean simply the fly which comes from the grub, and dim 

 notions about the transformations of insects certainly were of 

 early date in history. The word "moth" presents this 



peculiarity, that it doubtless took its origin from the habits of 

 those small species which for thousands of years have been 

 noticed to infest and destroy woollen and other materials, and 

 by degrees it spread upwards till it was used to cover the whole 

 of the second great division of the Lepidoptera. The root is 

 an old word to be trace! in many languages, meaning some, 

 thing that eats or ohews, therefore quite inapplicable to all 

 these insects in their winged state. Then there is " cater- 

 pillar," the first half of which word must be left in obscurity, 

 the second clearly applying to the aotion of these creatures in 

 "pilling," peeling, or stripping plants and trees. Of "chrysa- 

 lis," still used by a number of authors to express the third 

 stage of insect life, one oan only say that it would be better to 

 supplant it by the word "pupa," as "chrysalis" originally 

 meant those pupse which have a lustrous or golden appearanoe, 

 as in a few butterflies. 



The statement has been freely copied by compilers of books 

 that you may at ones tell a butterfly from a moth by the 

 knobbed antennas of the former; but this is not very reliable, 

 since in the Red-horns, and in some of the Blues, the clubbing 

 is not very marked. More fallacious still is the popular sup- 

 position that moths are dull-coloured and butterflies gaily 

 adorned, for there are many examples to the contrary, though 

 it is possible to refer to whole groups of moths where sombre 

 tints predominate. The majority of our butterflies are also 

 lively in colouring, though they cannot compete with the 

 brilliancy of exotic species. A good distinction is the position 

 in which the wings are placed when the inseot is at rest. Our 

 butterflies when sitting on a flower or leaf generally bring all 

 the wings together above the back, so that all that is seen 

 is the under side of the hind wings. The frisky little fellows 

 we call Skippers practise, however, an eccentrioity, for they 

 often raise the fore wings and drop the hinder pair horizontally. 

 Host moths, on the other hand, either spread out all the wings 

 flat, or they fold up the hind wings, and hide these and the 

 body by sloping over them the fore wings. In the majority 

 of moths we find a singular formation, oalled the " spring and 

 socket arrangement." A ourved bristle at the base of the 

 hind wings passes into a small loop of membrane or hairs, 

 and works up and down when the inseot is on the wing, pos- 

 sibly needless in the case of butterflies, which have much less 

 weight to carry usually. " But, don't butterflies fly by day 

 and moths by night?" says someone. Well, we are tolerably 

 safe in asserting butterflies fly by day, though an occasional 

 White or Red Admiral has been seen careering about at even 

 tide, experimenting on the quality of the honey to be found at 

 that time ; but this is no adequate distinction between the two 

 groups. There are moths the regular habit of which is to fly 

 in the bright sunshine ; there are some that prefer dull days, 

 and some also that now and then make day excursions, though 

 it is their general habit to take wing at or about dusk ; and of 

 the night-flying moths there is a proportion fond of the twi- 

 light rather than of those hours when " gloom o'erspreads the 

 sky." 



The number of our British butterflies, including even a 

 couple of somewhat doubtful residents, is only sixty-six, a 

 proportion so remarkably small as compared with the sum 

 total of our moths, that a variety of explanations have been 

 given, none of them satisfactory. Perhaps the likeliest is that 

 which attributes it to the variableness of one climate and the 

 dampness of our average winters. Against these inseots, 

 taken as a whole, the horticulturist cannot bring a heavy 

 indictment, since his enemies are confined to a few species, 

 though these are certainly apt in some years to occasion him 

 annoyance. But butterflies do not attack any plants of special 

 value, such as the Vine amongst fruits, or the Potato amongst 

 vegetables, or the Rose amongst flowers. Naturally, many 

 butterflies are attracted to gardens by the flowers they display, 

 travelling at times long distances for this purpose, though 

 some of our speoies never quit the marsh, the field, or the 

 wood where they have been bred. — J. R. S. C. 



VICTORIA PARK. 



The ground was purchased with the money paid by the Duke 

 of Sutherland to the Government for Stafford House, £72,000. 

 The area of the park is about 290 acres. It is surrounded by 

 an industrial population with but little leisure time for pleasure, 

 and living for the most part in crowded workrooms and ill- 

 ventilated dwellings. Such people know best how to appreciate 

 the contrast between their usual surroundings and the beauties 

 of Nature when a little leisure gives them an opportunity 



