Nature biographies; the lives of some every-day butterflies; moths; grasshoppers and flies . plant of the genus Gnapha-lium. These caterpillars have the peculiar habit of mak-ing protective cases by gnawing off the woolly hairsof the food-plant and binding them together .^ by silken or beneaththese cases the larvae re-main, feeding upon thesubstance of the leaves. As the caterpillarsapproach maturity,they generally webtogether the upperleaves and the flowerheads to make a sort ofairy cell, in the middleof which they remainuntil full of them at thistime seem to care le
Nature biographies; the lives of some every-day butterflies; moths; grasshoppers and flies . plant of the genus Gnapha-lium. These caterpillars have the peculiar habit of mak-ing protective cases by gnawing off the woolly hairsof the food-plant and binding them together .^ by silken or beneaththese cases the larvae re-main, feeding upon thesubstance of the leaves. As the caterpillarsapproach maturity,they generally webtogether the upperleaves and the flowerheads to make a sort ofairy cell, in the middleof which they remainuntil full of them at thistime seem to care lessfor concealment thanthey did earlier, astheir cottony coveringsare more open. When the caterpillar finally becomes full fed, it spins a mass of silk against the upper part of its cell, in which it entano^les its hind le^s and lets itself hans: downward as shown in Figure 93. In a short time it wriggles off its caterpillar skin and hangs in the cell as a pupa (Fig. 94), where it remains unchanged for about a fortnight. Then the pupa skin splits open, the butterfly drops out, and Fig. 95. — Newly Emerged Butterfly, Nature Biographies. catches hold of the mass of leaves and blossoms with itslegs, its body and the undeveloped wings hanging down-ward. In the course of the next half hour the wingsexpand until they are full size, the front pair being en-closed by the hind pair,as may be seen in Fig-ure 95. Before longthe unused musclesacquire more strengthand the newly fledgedbutterfly walks to theI .MRPfe^,*^ top of the flowers, where it rests quietlyfor half an hour or is now very docileand in an excellentmood for o-ratifvino- thewhims of the photog-rapher. Though it can-not always be dependedupon to remain two orthree minutes in a givenposition for you to getan exposure throughthe colour screen, it willdo so often enough fora high average of goodpictures. But it will not hold its wings open for you,coax it as you may. After about an hour of such rest the butterfl
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectinsects, bookyear1901
