THE BUTTERFLY. 



of the compound eye (a\ which seems to take up the largest 

 share of the whole affair. Although so bulky and so complex 

 in the matter of divisions, or facets, as they are termed (the 

 facets are not shown in figure), the power of sight is not really 

 very keen. A butterfly can see things in a general way readily 

 enough, but it seems unable to clearly distinguish one object 

 from another. When engaged in egg-laying, the female butter- 

 fly rarely fails to place her eggs on a leaf or spray of the plant 

 that the future caterpillar will feed upon, and it has been 

 suggested that in making this unerring selection the insect is 

 guided more by the sense of smell than by that of sight. 



The horns (c) (antennce), or feelers, as they are sometimes 

 called, which adorn the head, are now considered to be organs 

 of smell. These are composed of a number 

 of rings or segments, which vary in the 

 different kinds of butterfly, as also does 

 the shape of the terminal rings forming 

 what is known as the club. In Fig. 7, e 

 (Purple Emperor) and /(Marbled White) 

 represent the gradually thickened club ; 

 jn g (Brimstone) and h (Dark-green Fritil- 

 lary) the clubs are more or less abruptly 

 formed. Our Skippers have well- developed 

 clubs ; these may be hooked at the tip as 

 in i (Large Skipper), or blunt at the tip as 

 in j (Chequered Skipper) ; at the base of 

 the Skipper's antenna, that is at the point 

 where it is inserted in the head, there is a 

 tuft of rather long hairs. 



Of the various mouth parts it will only 

 be necessary to refer to the suction-tube, 

 Fig. 6, d (proboscis), often called the "tongue," which is 

 perhaps the most important, at least to the butterfly itself, as 

 this organ is, in a way, as useful to it in the perfect state 



Fig. 6. 



Head of Butterfly. 



a, compound eye ; b, 

 palp ; c, antenna ; 

 d, proboscis. 



