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comes dormant: its outer skin hardens and becomes a 

 chrysalis ; the caterpillar is really going through a fifth 

 moult but does not immediately lea^e the hardened skin or 

 chrysalis. If it is early summer, the chrysalid state will 

 last but two or three weeks but if our larva was of a fall 

 brood, it will remain in the cocoon throughout the winter. 



When the time for emergence arrives, the cocoon will 

 show some signs of the movements within; the newly born 

 moth breaks through the chrysalid and exudes juices that 

 soften the upper part of the cocoon and allow it to slowly 

 drag itself out. It is now a sorry looking object, — large, 

 fat spotted body but with tiny limp wings. It climbs 

 down and hangs from the bottom of the cocoon or from a 

 twig while its wings are developing; these commence to 

 grow immediately after it gets out into the air, — you can 

 actually see them grow and in about half an hour they have 

 attained their full size, but are still limp. In another hour, 

 our moth will be slowly opening and shutting the handsome 

 wings and may make a flight at any time. He does not have 

 to learn to fly as little birds do; his first attempt will be a 

 strong swift and steady one. Surely it is a most wonder- 

 ful transformation from an ugly caterpillar to the beauti- 

 ful imago as the moth forms are termed. 



One of the most common and most beautiful of the 

 larger butterflies is the Bhick Swallow-tail (Papilio 

 asterias). We commonly see it in fields of clover as well 

 as about thistle blossoms. Its life history will serve as 

 typical of that of most butterflies. 



Although the butterfly gets its food from many plant 

 families, its larvae live almost exclusively upon members 

 of the pirsley family, either wild or cultivated; therefore 

 the female Asterias visits these plants to lay her eggs. 

 These are abovt the size of pin-heads, globular, yellow- 

 ish-wl ite. In a few days these turn gray, soften and the 

 little dark-colored larvae gnaw their way out. After feed- 

 ing ravenously upon the flowers, foliage and seed pods for 

 aboiit three weeks, and moulting five or six times, it attains 

 its full length of nearly three inches. It is of a pale 



