But/terfly

The most beautiful of insects, having wings covered with colored dust, which is really fine, shiny, iridescent scales. The butterfly is therefore called a scale-winged insect. Young caterpillars are hatched from the eggs of the but¬ terfly. In some cases these eggs are beautiful, shaped like vases and caskets. They are fastened to leaves, and the mother, during her brief life, seeks to deposit them on that plant which, after the caterpillars are hatched, will afford the proper food. The eggs of butterflies lie dormant during the winter, because the cold of winter would be fatal to the young insects, and the leaf¬ le trees would afford the caterpillars no food but the warmth of the spring soon develops the living embryo. The caterpillar is composed of thirteen rings joined together, and has six jointed legs on three of the rings behind its head, like the six legs of its mother. These remain with it through life, while the four pairs of legs on the rear part of its body disappear. The caterpillar crawls over the plant upon which it was born, devouring the green leaves. During this stage it is called a larva. After a time it ceases to eat, and becomes a pupa or chrysalis. Under its chin is a little spinner, from which i ues a silken thread, with which it suspends itself, head down¬ wards. Others nang from the tail. The chrysalis remains as if dead, but is really feeding on the fat formed in the body of the larva; and in due time the imago, the perfect butterfly, comes forth, dries its wings, and flies away full grown. Butterflies fly in the daytime, and when they