Beautiful Butterflies. 17 



reference to the voracious habits of these creatures, the 

 most destructive of any to vegetation. In Scripture 

 they are spoken of as eating up what the other insect 

 ravagers have left, as you will see by turning to the 

 fourth verse of the first chapter of the prophet Joel. 

 In Hebrew the Caterpillar is called a consumer, and 

 well does the cultivator of the land know it to be such ; 

 it begins to eat directly it comes out of the egg, and 

 continues to eat, eat, nothing but eat, except grow, 

 which it does very fast, and crawl from place to place 

 in search of fresh food, of which it sometimes consumes 

 more than double its own weight in twenty-four hours. 

 Think if you were to do this, what bakers', butchers', 

 and grocers' bills your parents would have to pay. 



The body of the caterpillar is, as you know, long, 

 and nearly cylindrical, that is, like a tube, or pipe ; 

 it is divided throughout into twelve segments, as 

 they are called, that is, divisions, as though pieces 

 of thread were tied round it at equal distances, 

 and drawn sufficiently tight to make slight indenta- 

 tions. The skin, which covers this body, is usually 

 soft and membranous, that is, web-like, covered with 

 little lines, which cross and re- cross each other, as in a 

 piece of network; sometimes, however, it is of a 

 coriaceous texture, that is, tough, like leather ; in both 

 cases it is very flexible, so that the creature can easily 

 turn and twist itself about. 



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