AND THE CHILDREN. 
31 
How pretty they are ! The larvae are, however, very 
destructive,—they eat the leaves of the plants and when 
the leaves are gone, unless there are a few new buds, the 
plant cannot live, for the leaves form the lungs of the 
plant. 
Catch the butterfly that is near you and we shall 
examine him more closely. 
Notice his feelers, the kind of horns on top of his 
head. They have little clubs at the ends. That is what 
distinguishes the butterflies from the moths. The moth’s 
feelers or antenncz have no little clubs at the ends but 
taper to a point. 
Now, here is a chance of training your power of see¬ 
ing. Examine the head carefully. What do you find ? 
You see a coil somewhat like a watch-spring. That 
is the trunk. If you examine it carefully you will find 
that it consists of two pieces which are nearly semicircu¬ 
lar and which fit upon each other in such a way as to 
form a tube. Through this the butterfly sucks the honey. 
But now I must tell you that he does not suck it as 
we do through a straw for the butterfly has no lungs 
through which he breathes. There are little muscles in 
the lower end of this trunk, which, as soon as some honey 
has risen in the tube, contract the tube at the point and 
thus drive the food up into the mouth. From the mouth 
