TYPICAL INSECTS 



197 



Fig. 56. Caterpillar on Milkweed Leaf. 



That it is alive may be shown by gently pressing it at the 

 thick end, when the other end will wriggle. Apparently the 

 insect in this chrysahs state is 

 not growing or developing. 

 Nevertheless, all this time won- 

 derful transformations are going 

 on within the shell. The cater- 

 pillar is being made over into a 

 butterfly. Wings are developing. 

 The legs become longer, the body 

 becomes markedly divided into 

 head, chest, and abdomen, the 

 biting mouth of the caterpillar 

 changes into the sucking tube of 

 the butterfly, the simple eyelets 

 become large and compound, and the rudimentary antennae 

 become long. Colored hairs and scales develop on the body 

 and wings. These are the principal external changes in the 

 caterpillar going on in the chrysahs. In the cabbage butter- 

 fly it takes two or three weeks to make this 

 change, except in those which pass the winter 

 in this condition. At the right time the chrys- 

 alis bursts and the winged adult butterfly 

 comes out, at first with soft and crumpled 

 wings, which, however, are soon inflated and 

 dried. How different now becomes the life 

 of the aerial, nectar-sipping butterfly from 

 what it was in the voracious, leaf-eating, crawling caterpillar. 

 Collect some nearly grown caterpillars and keep them in 

 cages in the school-room. Feed them regularly upon fresh 

 cabbage leaves. If possible, observe the moulting, the for- 



FlG. 57. Getting 

 Ready to Pupate. 



