George B. Longstaff’s Butterfly-Hunting in Many Lands appeared in 1912. The book itself is of no great interest to North Americans, as Longstaff spent only two weeks here, and came no farther south than Montreal. Still, his chapter of Bionomic Notes deals with butterflies in general and is well worth reading. The best part of the book, however, is the appendix, which contains E. A. Elliott’s translations of Fritz Müller’s famous papers on scent-producing organs in butterflies. The most important of these had never been published except in some obscure Portuguese journals, practically inaccessible to the American student.
In 1916, encouraged by the success of his Butterfly Book, Dr. Holland prepared a pocket manual called the Butterfly Guide, with colored figures representing some two hundred and fifty species.
In 1917 there appeared Clarence M. Weed’s Butterflies Worth Knowing, with thirty-two plates in color. This is one of the best of the smaller popular books, and contains a great deal of valuable modern material, but is not to be compared with Holland’s work.
No important popular books on butterflies have appeared in recent years. The best single work for the general reader is still Holland’s Butterfly Book; those living west of the Rockies should have Wright’s West Coast Butterflies also.
CHAPTER II
THE BUTTERFLY’S BODY
The body of a butterfly, like that of any other insect, is divided by constrictions into three parts: the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. The head carries the eyes, antennae, and mouth parts; the thorax bears the legs and wings; and the abdomen the sexual appendages.
THE HEAD, EYES, AND MOUTH PARTS
The head is globular, usually a little flattened from front to rear. Two large compound eyes are located at the sides of the head, and the face or front consists largely of a plate called the clypeus. Above the clypeus and between the eyes are the antennae or feelers, which are believed to be the organs of hearing, smell, and touch. Below the clypeus is the labrum or upper lip, and the rudimentary mandibles; just below these are the two maxillae, which unite to form a tube called the proboscis, used in sucking nectar out of flowers. When not in use the proboscis is coiled up like a watch-spring between the two three-jointed labial palpi. The labium or lower lip is very small in butterflies.