WONDERS OF TRANSFORMATION
One of the most wonderful things in the world of life is the manner in which insects and butterflies, and moths in particular, undergo transformation, passing from the egg into the caterpillar, then changing into the chrysalis, and finally emerging as the winged insect, fluttering among the flowers.
The eggs of butterflies are beautiful objects when examined under a microscope. Some are shaped like spheres, some like cones, some like spindles, others like turbans. They are fluted, ribbed, pitted, sculptured, in a multitude of ways. In color they are as various as the eggs of birds. Figure 3 shows the egg of the Viceroy (Basilarchia disippus), one of the Admirals belonging to the same group of insects as those which are figured on one of the plates of “The Butterfly Book,” reproduced with this article. Figure 4 shows the egg of the Monarch, or common “Milkweed butterfly” (Anosia plexippus), which the Viceroy mimics in the color and markings of its wings.
Fig. 11
WING OF THE VICEROY
The scales removed to show the arrangement of wings
Fig. 12
FRAME OF A FOLDING BUTTERFLY NET
Fig. 13
RING FOR A BUTTERFLY NET
Made by soldering a hoop of stout brass wire into the top of the ferrule of a fishing rod
Fig. 14
JAR FOR KILLING BUTTERFLIES
A sheet of perforated paper pasted over lumps of cyanide of potash held in place at the bottom by dry sawdust
When the caterpillar within the egg has reached its full development the top of the egg splits off, as if a lid had been lifted, and the little creature crawls out, and generally makes its first meal upon the shell which it has just vacated, thus whetting its appetite for future banquets, treating the shell as a hors d’œuvre. The larvæ of most butterflies and moths feed on vegetable food; but there are some curious species, even of butterflies, which are carnivorous, the caterpillars of which devour mealy bugs and the larvæ of ants. The ant-eating species are found in Africa, Asia, and Australia.