SOMETHING ABOUT BUTTERFLIES. 



Butterfly is a popular term for a few 

 of the higher families of scaly winged 

 insects. They differ from moths in hav- 

 ing their wings erect when not in use, 

 and almost invariably fly by day and in 

 the hot sunshine. In transformation 

 they seldom spin a cocoon, for the hinder 

 end of the chrysalis is provided with lit- 

 tle hooks by which a firm hold is had of 

 a button of silk, spun beforehand, to 

 cling to. 



Moths generally fly by night, expand 

 their wings fully, or even incline them 

 downward when at rest. Moths always 

 pass their chrysalis state in a cocoon or 

 in a cell beneath the ground, and have 

 no hooks at the tip of their chrysalis. 

 Together with other scaly winged (Lepi- 

 doptera) insects, the butterfly undergoes 

 peculiar and, to outward appearances, 

 very sudden transformations during its 

 growth. 



Born as an egg, it emerges from it as 

 a wormlike animal called a caterpillar, 

 which feeds voraciously upon the plant 

 upon which its maternal instinct has 

 taught the butterfly to lay her egg. It 

 casts its skin several times in its growth, 

 and finally changing its integments 

 again, comes out a pupa or chrysalis in 

 which the creature appears, as if in 

 swaddling-clothes. All its appendages 

 are neatly encased upon its breast, and 

 itself helpless and almost completely mo- 

 tionless to ordinary view. As different 

 as possible from the aerial creature with 

 variagated tremulous wings one may see 

 shortly afterwards sipping honey from 

 an open flower or dancing merrily in the 

 sunshine. 



The butterfly deposits her egg on both 

 the upper and under side of leaves and on 

 stems. They are laid sometimes singly, 

 sometimes in mass'es, or in clusters of 

 two or more. They look very uninter- 

 esting, bni under the microscope one 

 might look far before discovering ob- 



jects more graceful in form or more deli- 

 cate in marking. Their vaulted summits 

 might give useful hints to the architect. 

 The extreme summit of each tiny egg is 

 always covered by a little rosette of cells 

 of the most exquisite delicacy. Indeed, 

 so delicate are they that they often re- 

 quire the highest powers of the micro- 

 scope to discern, but arranged in such 

 definite patterns that in looking at them 

 we seem to be peering through the cir- 

 cular rose-window of a miniature gothic 

 cathedral. The cells which form the in- 

 terior of the rosette are the points at 

 which the microscopic pores or canals 

 lead into the interior of the egg and 

 through which it is fertilized. Eggs 

 vary much in height and are usually 

 ribbed vertically, the ribs varying in one 

 species from eight, thirty, or forty in 

 number. In shape they vary and are 

 either barrel shaped, globular, sugar 

 loafed, flask or acorn shaped, fusiform 

 or spindle-shape. The most common is 

 the barrel shape. 



The caterpillar of the swallow-tailed 

 butterfly (Papilionidac) is provided with 

 a scent organ, situated on the first seg- 

 ment, behind the head. When extended, 

 the organ is in the shape of a Y, but 

 when not required for defense it is en- 

 tirely retracted within the body. This 

 organ is unquestionably a weapon of de- 

 fense against foes, for the stench it 

 emits is simply insufferable. In other 

 Butterflies the stench organs are gen- 

 erally found upon the under side of the 

 body, between lower top and the front 

 legs. In this place it is never devel- 

 oped as a Y shaped organ, but is ro- 

 tunded as a conical or hemispherical 

 bladder of greater or less size. 



The caterpillars, in growth from egg 

 to maturity, naturally changes the char- 

 acter of its coating, after every month 

 or changing of its skin. 



Some caterpillars have enormously de- 



