That is the “life-history” of a butterfly; and moths are developed in just the same way, except that very often their caterpillars spin silken cells, which we call “cocoons,” and turn to chrysalids inside them. And the chrysalids of moths, remember, are often known as “pupæ.”
Then there are one or two other things about these insects that I should like to tell you. One is that their wings are covered all over with very tiny scales.
Of course you know that if you catch a butterfly, and let it go again, your fingers are covered with a kind of mealy dust. And if you look at a little of this dust through a microscope you will find that it is made up of thousands and thousands of the smallest possible scales, all most beautifully chiselled and sculptured, and each with a slender little stalk at the base. And if you look at a piece of the butterfly’s wings through the microscope, you will see that these scales are arranged upon it in rows, which overlap one another just like the slates on the roof of a house.
All the colour of a butterfly’s wing is in these scales, and if you rub them off you will find that the wing itself is as transparent as that of a bluebottle-fly or a bee.
Then a great many butterflies and moths have a “trunk” or “proboscis” coiled up underneath the head. This is really a long tube, and when the insects are hungry they poke it down into a flower, and suck up the nectar through it. You can see this trunk quite easily if you look sideways at such a butterfly as a “scarlet admiral” or a “peacock.”
Then there is just one thing more.
No doubt you would like to know how to tell butterflies from moths. Well, just look at their feelers or “antennæ,” as they are often called. You will see that those of butterflies are thickened at the very tips, while those of moths are not. Besides this, the body of a butterfly is nipped in at the middle much more than that of a moth. And when a butterfly is at rest it always folds its wings together over its back, while moths nearly always spread them out, or allow them to hang down, or wrap them round their bodies.
THEODORE WOOD.