Nature biographies; the lives of some every-day butterflies; moths; grasshoppers and flies . ams. Insuch situations it sails leisurelyabout, stopping now and then tosip nectar from a flower, or per-chance to deposit an Qgg on the tip of a leaf upon awillow or poplar twig. In the late summer months itoften flies under apple trees to sip the juices of thedecaying fruit. If the egg upon the wallow leaf happens to have beenlaid by one of the first of the seasons butterflies, ithatches in a few days—generally a week — into a tinycaterpillar that gnaws a hole out of the side of the egg-shell, and af
Nature biographies; the lives of some every-day butterflies; moths; grasshoppers and flies . ams. Insuch situations it sails leisurelyabout, stopping now and then tosip nectar from a flower, or per-chance to deposit an Qgg on the tip of a leaf upon awillow or poplar twig. In the late summer months itoften flies under apple trees to sip the juices of thedecaying fruit. If the egg upon the wallow leaf happens to have beenlaid by one of the first of the seasons butterflies, ithatches in a few days—generally a week — into a tinycaterpillar that gnaws a hole out of the side of the egg-shell, and after it has escaped turns round and eats theremainder of the shell. Probably, as Mr. Scudder hassuggested, this peculiar meal is taken to prevent thepresence of the empty shell from notifying some enemy— perhaps an ant, possibly an ichneumon — that a youngcaterpillar is in the vicinity. After this dry repast, it isready for more succulent food, and this it finds right athand in the leaf it is resting upon. Here it feeds, eating 1 Liinenitis disippiis I Nature Fig. 15. — Viceroy Caterpillar feeding onPoplar Leaf, the sides of the leaf near the tip, but letting the de-nuded midrib remain. When its appetite is satisfied it retires to the lower sur-face of the leaf, where itrests motionless upon themidrib. Throughout theday, when its enemiescould easily see it if itmoved, it remains quietlyon its resting-place, feed-ing chiefly under cover ofdarkness. In about aweek it moults, eatingthe cast skin, and soonbeoins ao^ain to devourthe succulent leaf young caterpil-lars have the curious habit of fastening a few bits of leaftogether by means of silken threads, and then fasteningthe bunch to the denudedrib of the leaf. Such littlepackets are shown in Figure18 on the lower left-handleaf, and in Figures 15 and16 near the middle, behindthe vertical leaf stem. Toexplain this I want to quotefrom an admirable essay byMr. Samuel H. Scudder,whose stu
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectinsects, bookyear1901
