“It is called the Marbled-white, or Marmoress,” said Mrs. Merton, “but I think it is a variety a little different from the common kind.”
“Look, mamma!” said Agnes, “there it is again, sitting on that bough with its wings closed. How very odd it is that butterflies should always sit in that queer position!”
“It is their attitude of repose,” said Mrs. Merton. “They sit in that position when they are asleep, and they are even found in it when they are dead.”
Fig. 30.
The Marbled-white Butterfly, or Marmoress
(Hipparchia Galathea).
“It is very curious,” said Agnes, “that they should be so very fond of displaying the under side of their wings; and it is still more curious that the under side should be so very different from the upper side. How is it, mamma? I should have thought in wings so thin as those of the butterfly, that the colours would shine through.”
“The marks on the butterfly’s wing,” said Mrs. Merton, “are composed of a number of delicate little scales, laid over each other like the feathers of birds; and there are two different sets of scales for every wing, one covering the upper, and the other the under side. If you lay hold of a butterfly by its wings, you will find that some of these delicate little scales will adhere to your fingers, on which they will look like fine dust, and that the membrane of the wing from which they were brushed will be laid bare; just as the skin of a bird would be if you were to pluck off its feathers.”
“Ah, mamma,” cried Agnes, “there is another butterfly, which appears to me quite different from the other.”
“Yes,” said Mrs. Merton, “that is the Clouded-Yellow, a very common butterfly in every part of England, and, I believe, in almost every part of the world. It is, however, rather capricious in its visits, as every three or four years a season occurs when not one of these butterflies is to be seen; while, perhaps, the next season they are so abundant as to lie dead under every hedge.”
