The Life-History and Anatomy of Butterflies 



fanning its wings, while by the strong process of circulation a 

 rapid injection of the blood into the wings and other organs takes 

 place, accompanied by their expansion to normal proportions, in 

 which they gradually attain to more or less rigidity. Hardly any- 

 thing in the range of insect life is more interesting than this rapid 

 development of the butterfly after its first emergence from the 

 chrysalis. The body is robbed of its liquid contents in a large 

 degree; the abdomen is shortened up; the chitinous rings which 

 compose its external skeleton become set and hardened; the 

 wings are expanded, and then the moment arrives when, on airy 

 pinions, the creature that has lived a worm-like life for weeks 

 and months, or which has been apparently sleeping the sleep of 

 death in its cerements, soars aloft in the air, the companion of 

 the sunlight and the breezes. 



ANATOMY OF BUTTERFLIES 



The body of the butterfly consists of three parts— the head, 

 the thorax, and the abdomen. 



The Head.— The head is globular, its breadth generally exceed- 

 ing its length. The top is called the vertex; the anterior portion, 



corresponding in location to 

 the human face, is called 

 the front. Upon the sides 

 of the head are situated the 

 large compound eyes, between 

 which are the antennae, or 

 "feelers," as they are some- 

 times called. Above the 

 mouth is a smooth horny 

 plate, the clypeus. The la- 

 brum, or upper lip, is quite 

 small. On both sides of the 

 mouth are rudimentary man- 

 dibles, which are microscopic 

 objects. The true suctorial 

 apparatus is formed by the 

 maxilla, which are produced in the form of semi-cylindrical 

 tubes, which, being brought together and interlocking, form a com- 



14 



Fig. 29. — Head of milkweed butterfly, 

 stripped of scales and greatly magnified 

 (after Burgess): v, vertex;/, front; cl, cly- 

 peus; lb, labrum, or upper lip; mi, mandi- 

 bles; a, antenns; oc, eyes; tk, spiral tongue, 

 or proboscis. 



