242 THE INFANCY OF ANIMALS 



trast than is the case between, say, the zoea and the adult 

 crab. For what could be more unlike than the sluggish, 

 almost worm-like caterpillar, all day long slicing up leaves 

 with its horny, pincer-like jaws, and the aerial, nectar- 

 sipping butterfly, flitting from flower to flower in the sun- 

 light of a summer day, on wings which reflect aU the hues 

 of the rainbow, and some to spare ! Almost the only 

 feature which the caterpillar and the butterfly share in 

 common is the method of breathing. But we are not 

 here concerned so much with the anatomical differences 

 between these two sharply contrasted periods of Ufe as 

 with the incidents of these periods ; and many of these are 

 of a truly remarkable character. 



The ordinary course of the caterpillar's life, whether of 

 moth or butterfly, is too weU known to need description 

 here : the principal phases thereof are admirably summa- 

 rised in our illustration representing the hfe-history of the 

 puss-moth, from the caterpillar to the perfect insect. 

 What is depicted here is true of all. But there are striking 

 differences in the form, coloration and behaviour of the 

 caterpillars of the different species of butterflies and 

 moths, and no less so in the events which mark the close 

 of larval life. 



As a rule the eggs are attached to the food-plant by 

 some adhesive covering, as in the case of the privet hawk- 

 moth for example, which, as is the rule, distributes its 

 eggs over a wide area — a few in each place. But the Ghost- 

 moth scatters its eggs broadcast as it flies, and this is 

 the only case of the kind known to me. The young, on 

 hatching, commonly make their first meal of the shell from 

 which they emerged. Growth from the period of hatching 

 onwards takes place in a series of stages broken by short 

 fasts followed by a moult — for, as in the case of aU the 



