AMONG THE MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES.* 
By Juuia P. BaLiarp. 
A butterfly in March! Velvety black, with 
wings bordered with a double row of yellow 
spots and the hinder wings tailed, having also 
the added ornament of seven blue spots (a 
nebula of dotted blue points with a frosted sil- 
very sheen marking each spot). He is the 
Papilio asterias. You have seen him in May, 
June or July, hovering over a bed of phlox or 
other sweet flowers; but unless you caught 
him ‘in the bud,” or, of course, when a cater- 
pillar, you would not have him in the middle of 
March. 
The sole occupant of a glass fernery, sipping 
from sugar-sprinkled moss with his long, un- 
coiled tongue, he seems quite at home, and 
sees nothing of the snow now whitening every 
branch and tiny shrub—knows nothing of the 
‘«« April-fool,” which, as Susan Ceolidge says, 
spring throws to the flowers outside—the dar- 
ing crocus and daffodil. With his moss, and 
some fresh snowdrops in a vase, standing in 
his glass house for dessert—an extra drop of 
sweetened water in their pure cups—he is 
monarch of his little world. 
As a caterpillar he was handsome. At first 
a tiny black caterpillar, with a white stripe 
running through the centre of the body and 
across the tail, and covered with some small 
black dots or points. The next coat has but 
one white stripe across the middle, on the sixth 
and seventh rings, with orange spots beneath 
the black points, two white spots on his first 
ring and a row of white spots on each side. 
Then at last he has a rich coat, striped with 
black and dark green, and ornamented with 
deep yellow spots. But his chrysalis is quite 
plain, with nothing of the exquisite beauty of 
the green and gold house of the Danais. But 
when he leaves his shell, coming out by the 
narrowest possible front door, so that you must 
look sharp to see the thread-like opening, then 
he is much handsomer than the Danais butter- 

* ** Among the Moths and Butterflies” is a charmingly writ- 
ten and instructive work on these insects, recently published by 
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, from which we reprint the 
ntroductory chapter. 
fly. So, many people, living in. plain taber-- 
nacles, and sometimes regarded homely by 
others, have something within, waiting to give 
great surprise when they shail have escaped, 
through a narrow door, into a world of won- 
derful light and beauty ! 
The Papilio asterias is very fond, in his. 
caterpillar form, of the wild carrot, or garden: 
carrot, parsley or celery, and any of the warm, 
aromatic plants, as anise, caraway and dill. 
This March butterfly, as a caterpillar, was. 
eating his delicate carrot leaves and seeds last 
September at the same time with the Danais. 
caterpillar, and as we brought them fresh 
leaves day after day, and watched them go into- 
their queer little houses at the same time, we 
did not know then but they would have their 
“opening” also together. But while the 
Danais was ready to come out in a fortnight or 
three weeks, the Asterias slept on until March— 
six months under his glass roof, without movy- 
ing a hair’s breadth, until he was out trying his. 
new wings yesterday morning. Some other 
kinds of chrysalids have kept him company all! 
this time, except that they have moved a little, 
and sometimes a good deal (when touched’ 
with a pencil or slightly blown upon), showing 
the life within; but not a particle—watch him 
never so closely—moves the Asterias. There 
were six chrysalids of this one kind under sep- 
arate glasses, all of which were taken as cater- 
pillars, and each of which I had watched go- 
into his separate house. It is not a cocoon, 
woven, as some are, of their own hairs, or spun 
from some hidden substance through a spin-- 
neret, but, like the Danais’, it is formed under. 
the caterpillar skin, and when he is suspended 
as a caterpillar, with a silken thread holding 
him about the body, he drops off the entire 
skin, and it remains, as seen, beside his chry- 
salis, which is pale and nondescript in color, 
knobbed with many little round protuberances, 
giving it a curious rather than pretty appear- 
ance. When one was out the next thing was. 
to look at the others, when lo! a most sur-- 
prising revelation! Another chrysalis was: 
