THE BUTTERFLY. 



171 



fly's masquerade. After lie has thrown off the mask, 

 he is called a pupa, because he wraps himself up in his 

 silken web as a baby is wrapped in its bandages. It 

 makes one think of a little Indian papoose. Then, 

 again, he is called a chrysalis, for sometimes his ham- 

 mock is spotted with gold. Only two of the butterfly 

 families — the vanessas and the fritellaries — the " big 

 wigs," I suppose, attempt this kind of ornament. The 

 hammocks are usually quite plain and unpretending. 

 Some of them are so thin, you can see the pupa through 

 the meshes. It looks white, and covered with a kind 

 of oil, and you can pick out almost all the parts of the 

 butterfly. The feelers (antenna) are folded down by 

 the legs ; and along the centre of the body, between the 

 legs, you can see the long tongue lying in a straight line. 

 On the sides you can see the air-slits, or spiracles, and 

 the wings show all their veins. If the weather is warm 

 and bright, the pupa comes out of his shell, or ham- 

 mock, in seven or eight days. In the spring it takes 

 him two or three weeks to turn himself into a butterfly. 

 If he goes into the papoose state in the fall, he sleeps 

 all winter in his cradle, and comes out a butterfly in the 

 spring. Indeed, if these sleeping caterpillars are kept 

 in a cool place, they will sleep on for two or three 

 years ; but, if one were suddenly taken into a hot-house 

 in winter, the heat would arouse it, and the butterfly 



