Nature biographies; the lives of some every-day butterflies; moths; grasshoppers and flies . e angle that the leaves make in their attachment tothe stems. Very often this position involves such aresistance to the force of gravity that you wonder how the insect keeps itsfront end in positionfor so long a you look carefully,however, with a lensor reading-glass, youcan see a silkenthread extendingfrom the mouth to thetwig; this is the secretof the fixed position,for this thread holdsthe head in did this wonderful adaptation come about .^^ Notso very long ago the answer would hav
Nature biographies; the lives of some every-day butterflies; moths; grasshoppers and flies . e angle that the leaves make in their attachment tothe stems. Very often this position involves such aresistance to the force of gravity that you wonder how the insect keeps itsfront end in positionfor so long a you look carefully,however, with a lensor reading-glass, youcan see a silkenthread extendingfrom the mouth to thetwig; this is the secretof the fixed position,for this thread holdsthe head in did this wonderful adaptation come about .^^ Notso very long ago the answer would have been that theCreator made the caterpillar so, in order that it mightescape from its enemies, and additional strength wouldthus be given to the famous argument from , however, we simply cite it as another instanceof the strange results of the centuries of struggle forexistence through which the species has passed. In sodoing we by no means deny that the Creator made theinsect as we see it, but we simply say that the methodof its perfection has been through the action of the 38. Fig. 44. —Sweet Fern Caterpillar. (On the rij^ht-hand vertical leaf, but practically indistinguish-able.) A Rural Impostor. laws of natural selection. For the mystery of life is asinscrutable as ever ; we are merely learning, step by step,a little about the ways in which it manifests itself. When the caterpillar becomes full grown, it makes acocoon from the leaves surrounding it, fastening themtogether by silken threads. Within this, it changes toa pupa, to change again later to a beautiful little greenmoth, which is called by entomologists Aplodes rubi-frontalia. It belongs to the large and interesting fam-ily of geometers — the Geometridse, or Phalaenidae. 39
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectinsects, bookyear1901
