The New Student's Reference Work/Butterfly
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Butterfly, the common name for a group of day-flying insects. Butterflies and moths form a natural order of the class Insecta and are so closely related that they should be considered together. Nearly every boy knows that a sort of dust sticks to the fingers after handling butterflies and moths. This dust, examined under the microscope is seen to be made up of minute scales, with which the wings of these insects are covered, and this circumstance gives them the name of the scaly-winged (Lepidoptera). It is a common mistake to suppose that the moths are all plain and somber in color, while butterflies are more brilliant. The group of moths, on the contrary, embraces some of the largest and most beautiful members of the order. The butterflies are day fliers, their antennæ are knobbed at the end, and they fold their wings vertically over the back when at rest. The moths fly mainly at night; their antennæ are of various forms; and their wings are seldom elevated in repose.
Butterflies and moths make an attractive cabinet. A collection can be started with very little trouble. The requirements are: a net spread over a hoop attached to a cane or pole; a killing fluid, as chloroform or benzine; a board for spreading the wings until they are dried, and a tight covered box in which the specimens may be kept. Hodge in Nature Study and Life, recommends a home-made glass case, specimens glued. As is well known, butterflies and moths come from caterpillars and various other larvæ forms. The eggs are laid by the full-grown insects, but from them hatch worm-like larvæ instead of winged insects. After feeding and moulting, the larvæ in turn form cocoons or cases about themselves, from which they emerge as butterflies and moths. The larvæ are exceedingly varied; the common, woolly caterpillars, the measuring worms, forming a group of moths; the tomato worm, the milkweed worm are familiar examples. From the cabbage worm come the white butterflies that are so common. Some are destructive to crops, as the army-worm; some to fur and woolen fabrics, as the small, inconspicuous larvae of the woolen moth; and some to trees, as the gypsy moth. (See Caterpillar.)
Among the butterflies of the United States the swallow-tailed variety (see Fig.) is the largest and most attractive. The common yellow and white varieties are the most numerous. The brownish milkweed butterflies are very well known. The promethea, polyphemus and luna moths are large and beautiful, as are also the moths of the silkworm. Some of the common, dark-colored butterflies (euvanessa antiopa) live through the winter in sheltered places in the middle and northern states and come out on warm days. Some of the large tropical butterflies are exceedingly brilliant in color, and measure upward of eight inches in spread of wings. The mouth parts of butterflies and moths are much changed. There are no biting jaws, but a long, sucking tube, coiled like a watch-spring when not in use, sucking nectar and honey from flowers. Some of the forms resemble leaves when the wings are folded over the back, and are protected from their enemies by this resemblance. See Scudder: Everyday Butterflies (1899); French: Butterflies and Moths of the E. U. S. (1896); Holland: The Butterfly Books, with colored plates but of moderate price; the beautiful and extensive monographs of Edwards and Scudder; Weed: Life-History of American Insects; Comstock: Insect-Life; and Crojin: Our Insect Friends and Foes.