24 
THE CATERPILLAR. 
blit when it moved in his fingers, he dropped 
it in a fright, and felt for a moment as if the 
twig were alive. 
The hinder legs, although they are so useful 
to the caterpillar, would be of no use at all to 
the butterfly, who will not want to cling to 
branches, or to eat leaves; so they disappear 
altogether, when the caterpillar changes into a 
chrysalis. For this reason they are called falqp 
legs . 
The caterpillar uses its 
fore-legs to walk with; 
they are always six in 
number; and hard and 
horny, and end not in a 
foot, but a claw. It will 
never lose these, as it 
does the others, for they 
become the legs of the butterfly, and are called 
true legs. 
In the caterpillars of moths, the hinder legs 
are often without the fleshy plate I have been 
been describing. Indeed, in some cases they will 
have no hinder legs at all, or only a single pair, 
leaving the middle of the body without; and this 
makes a great difference in their manner of 
walking. Those with legs to every ring, keep 
flat to the ground, and walk very fast, moving 
Fore-leg magnified. 
