THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



ment, the antenna bear a striking resemblance 

 to those of the Zyganida and Procridtz ; when 

 they are at rest a small portion of the fore- 

 wings overlaps the hind-wings, which have a 

 slight tendency to fold up, and though .he 

 wings of many moths such as the Geometry 

 are stiff and incapable of doing so, there is 

 no other disposition either amongst our own 

 or exotic Papiliottidx to double up in the fan- 

 like manner characteristic of most moths. 

 But perhaps the strongest argument that can 

 be advanced in favour of those who regard 

 the Hesperidce as moths is the fact mentioned 

 by Kirby of an Australian butterfly, allied to 

 this genus, possessing a frenulum or bristle, 

 the only instance in which this structure is 

 known to occur in a so-called butterfly. By 

 some systematists the Lepidoptera have been j 

 separated into two divisions dependent on I 

 this distinction; the Papilionidse being classified 

 as Achalinoptera, wings without hooks ; the 

 Heterocera, as Chalinoptera, wings with [ 

 hooks. In the Death's-head moth (Acheroutia ; 

 Atropos) the beautiful arrangement of the 

 frenulum of the lower wings, which fits into 

 the loop on the upper when the wings are i 

 expanded thus linking them together, may be 

 seen to perfection without the aid of a mag- 

 nifying glass. 



Based solely on this distinctive character, 

 the presence or absence of the frenulum, the 

 present position of the British Hesperida is the 

 right one as none of our species possess this 

 structure. 



The Pupte of butterflies are either suspended 

 ( Sv.spcnsi), hanging with the head downward, 

 and attached by the tail, or girted (Succincti) 

 these adopting the far more comfortable posi- 

 tion one would think of an upright posture, and 

 besides being secured by the tail with a 

 button of silk, are supported by a silken 

 cincture across the body, nearly in the 

 middle, but rather closer to the head than 

 the tail end. The butterflies which emerge 

 from suspended pupae have but four perfect 

 legs, the first pair not being fully developed. 

 The pupae of many of the micro-lepidoptera j 



are suspended by the tail, and a few are sup- 

 ported by a cord of silk. No known butterfly, 

 British or foreign, passes the pupal stage of 

 its existence beneath the soil. 



Before leaving the pupse of butterflies it 

 may be well to call attention for one moment 

 to the silken girdle which supports some of 

 them. How is this formed ? It is needless 

 to state that the belt is not the work of the 

 pupa. When the larva of one of the succincti 

 is full-fed, it crawls up the stem of a plant, 

 or selects some other suitable position for its 

 metamorphosis. The first thing it does is to 

 spin several lines of silk to which the tail end 

 of the pupa will fasten itself, the caterpillar 

 then bends its head backwards as far as it 

 can reach, turning from side to side till it has 

 spun a sufficient quantity of silk cords to 

 support the weight of the future pupa. It 

 then dexterously extricates its head from 

 beneath the girdle, which owing to the 

 elasticity of the newly spun silk it is the more 

 easily enabled to do, and is so prepared for 

 its change. 



The cocoons in which some of the pupae of 

 lepidoptera are enveloped must certainly be 

 regarded as protective ; but why they should 

 be limited to a certain number of species, and 

 those not the rarest, or most delicate, it is 

 not easy to understand. Nor is the pupa 

 skin of the species thus clothed and protected 

 remarkable for being thinner, indeed many 

 of the Sphingida possess one of far greater! 

 tenuity. The idea therefore suggests itself to 

 me that the clothed species are very suscep- 

 tible to damp, and likely to be destroyed by 

 moisture, and that the cocoons serve the 

 purpose of keeping tne enclosed pupa dry, at 

 least in the case of the hard compact cocoons, j 

 such as those formed by the Eggar (Bomb) v 

 quercus) and Drinker (Odoncstis potatoria) 

 moths. I am confirmed in this opinion by 

 the fact that a number of cocoons of the 

 Emperor moth (Saturnia carpini) which I sub- 

 jected to the damping process all perished, 

 failing to produce a single moth. 



(To be continued ). 



