The Butterfly Book

Chapter 1

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The b.u.t.terfly Book.

by William Jacob Holland.

PREFACE

At some time or other in the life of every healthy young person there appears to be developed what has been styled "the collecting mania."

Whether this tendency is due to the natural acquisitiveness of the human race, to an innate appreciation of the beautiful and the curious, or to the development of an instinct such as is possessed by the bower-bird, the magpie, and the crow, which have the curious habit of gathering together and storing away trifles which are bright and attractive to the eye, I leave to students of the mind to decide. The fact is patent that there is no village without its youthful enthusiast whose collection of postage-stamps is dear to his heart, and no town in which there are not amateur geologists, archaeologists, botanists, and zoologists, who are eagerly bent upon the formation of collections of such objects as possess an attraction for them.

One of the commonest pursuits of boyhood is the formation of a collection of insects. The career of almost every naturalist of renown has been marked in its early stages by a propensity to collect these lower, yet most interesting and instructive, forms of animal life. Among the insects, because of their beauty, b.u.t.terflies have always held a foremost place in the regard of the amateur collector. For the lack, however, of suitable instruction in the art of preserving specimens, and, above all, by reason of the almost entire lack of a convenient and well-ill.u.s.trated manual, enabling the collector to identify, name, and properly cla.s.sify the collections which he is making, much of the labor expended in this direction in the United States and Canada fails to accomplish more than the furnishing of temporary recreation. It is otherwise in Europe. Manuals, comprehensive in scope, and richly adorned with ill.u.s.trations of the leading insect forms of Great Britain and the Continent, have been produced in great numbers in recent years in England, France, and Germany. The result is that the youthful collector enters the field in those countries in the possession of a vast advantage over his less fortunate American fellow. It is to meet this want on this side of the Atlantic that this volume has been written. Its aim is to guide the amateur collector in right paths and to prepare him by the intelligent accomplishment of his labors for the enjoyment of still wider and more difficult researches in this and allied fields of human knowledge. The work is confined to the fauna of the continent of North America north of the Rio Grande of Texas. It is essentially popular in its character. Those who seek a more technical treatment must resort to the writings of others.

If I shall succeed in this book in creating a more wide-spread interest in the world of insect life and thereby diverting attention in a measure from the persecuted birds, which I love, but which are in many species threatened with extinction by the too eager attentions which they are receiving from young naturalists, who are going forth in increased numbers with shot-gun in hand, I think I shall render a good service to the country.

I flatter myself that I have possessed peculiar facilities for the successful accomplishment of the undertaking I have proposed to myself, because of the possession of what is admitted to be undoubtedly the largest and most perfect collection of the b.u.t.terflies of North America in existence, containing the types of W.H. Edwards, and many of those of other authors. I have also enjoyed access to all the other great collections of this country and Europe, and have had at my elbow the entire literature relating to the subject.

The successful development in recent months of the process of reproducing in colors photographic representations of objects has been to a certain degree the argument for the publication of this book at the present time. A few years ago the preparation of such a work as this at the low price at which it is sold would have been an utter impossibility. "The b.u.t.terflies of North America," by W.H. Edwards, published in three volumes, is sold at one hundred and fifty dollars, and, as I know, is sold even at this price below the cost of manufacture. "The b.u.t.terflies of New England," by Dr. S.H. Scudder, in three volumes, is sold at seventy-five dollars, and likewise represents at this price only a partial return to the learned author for the money, labor, and time expended upon it. The present volume, while not pretending to vie in any respect with the magnificence of the ill.u.s.trations contained in these beautiful and costly works, nevertheless presents in recognizable form almost every species figured in them, and in addition a mult.i.tude of others, many of which have never before been delineated. So far as possible I have employed, in making the ill.u.s.trations, the original types from which the author of the species drew his descriptions. This fact will no doubt add greatly to the value of the work, as it will not only serve as a popular guide, but have utility also for the scientific student.

I am under obligations to numerous friends and correspondents who have aided me, and take the present opportunity to extend to them all my hearty thanks for the generous manner in which they have a.s.sisted me in my pleasant task. I should fail, however, to follow the instincts of a grateful heart did I not render an especial acknowledgment to Mr. W.H.

Edwards, of Coalburg, West Virginia, and Dr. Samuel H. Scudder, of Cambridge, Ma.s.sachusetts. Justly esteemed as the two foremost lepidopterists of America, it is my honor to claim them as personal friends, whose kindness has much aided me in this labor of scientific love which I have undertaken. For the kind permission given me by Dr.

Scudder to use various ill.u.s.trations contained in the "b.u.t.terflies of New England" and other works, I am profoundly grateful.

I am under obligations to Messrs. Charles Scribner"s Sons for permission to use the cuts numbered 46-49, 51-56, 59, 61, 62, and 73, which are taken from the work ent.i.tled "Taxidermy and Zoological Collecting," by W.T. Hornaday, and to the authorities of the United States National Museum and the heirs of the late Professor C.V. Riley for other ill.u.s.trations.

Should this book find the favor which I have reason to think it deserves, I shall endeavor shortly to follow it by the preparation of a similar work upon the moths of the United States and Canada.

OFFICE OF THE CHANCELLOR, W.J.H.

WESTERN UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, August 16, 1898.

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I

THE LIFE-HISTORY AND ANATOMY OF b.u.t.tERFLIES

"The study of b.u.t.terflies,--creatures selected as the types of airiness and frivolity,--instead of being despised, will some day be valued as one of the most important branches of biological science."--BATES, _Naturalist on the Amazons_.

In studying any subject, it is always well, if possible, to commence at the beginning; and in studying the life of animals, or of a group of animals, we should endeavor to obtain a clear idea at the outset of the manner in which they are developed. It is a familiar saying that "all life is from an egg." This statement is scientifically true in wide fields which come under the eye of the naturalist, and b.u.t.terflies are no exception to the rule.

THE EGGS OF b.u.t.tERFLIES

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 1.--Egg of _Basilarchia disippus_, magnified 30 diameters (Riley).]

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 2.--Egg of _Basilarchia disippus_, natural size, at the end of under surface of leaf (Riley).]

The eggs of b.u.t.terflies consist of a membranous sh.e.l.l containing a fluid ma.s.s composed of the germ of the future caterpillar and the liquid food which is necessary for its maintenance and development until it escapes from the sh.e.l.l. The forms of these eggs are various. Some are spherical, others hemispherical, conical, and cylindrical. Some are barrel-shaped; others have the shape of a cheese, and still others have the form of a turban. Many of them are angled, some depressed at the ends. Their surface is variously ornamented. Sometimes they are ribbed, the ribs running from the center outwardly and downwardly along the sides like the meridian lines upon a globe. Between these ribs there is frequently found a fine network of raised lines variously arranged. Sometimes the surface is covered with minute depressions, sometimes with a series of minute elevations variously disposed. As there is great variety in the form of the eggs, so also there is great variety in their color. Brown, blue, green, red, and yellow eggs occur. Greenish or greenish-white are common tints. The eggs are often ornamented with dots and lines of darker color. Species which are related to one another show their affinity even in the form of their eggs. At the upper end of the eggs of insects there are one or more curious structures, known as micropyles (little doors), through which the spermatozoa of the male find ingress and they are fertilized. These can only be seen under a good microscope.

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 3.--Egg of _Papilio turnus_, greatly magnified.]

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 4.--Egg of _Anosia plexippus_, magnified 30 diameters (Riley).]

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 5.--Egg of _Anosia plexippus_, natural size, on under side of leaf (Riley).]

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 6.--Egg of _Anthocharis genutia_, magnified 20 diameters.]

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 7.--Turban-shaped egg of _Lycaena pseudargiolus_, greatly magnified.]

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 8.--Egg of _Melitaea phaeton_, greatly magnified.]

The eggs are laid upon the food-plant upon which the caterpillar, after it is hatched, is destined to live, and the female reveals wonderful instinct in selecting plants which are appropriate to the development of the larva. As a rule, the larvae are restricted in the range of their food-plants to certain genera, or families of plants.

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 9.--Upper end of egg of _Pieris oleracea_, greatly magnified, showing the micropyle.]

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 10.--Egg of _Grapta comma_, laid in string-like cl.u.s.ters on the under side of leaf. (Magnified.)]

The eggs are deposited sometimes singly, sometimes in small cl.u.s.ters, sometimes in a ma.s.s. Fertile eggs, a few days after they have been deposited, frequently undergo a change of color, and it is often possible with a magnifying-gla.s.s to see through the thin sh.e.l.l the form of the minute caterpillar which is being developed within the egg.

Unfruitful eggs generally shrivel and dry up after the lapse of a short time.

The period of time requisite for the development of the embryo in the egg varies. Many b.u.t.terflies are single-brooded; others produce two or three generations during the summer in temperate climates, and even more generations in subtropical or tropical climates. In such cases an interval of only a few days, or weeks at the most, separates the time when the egg was deposited and the time when the larva is hatched. When the period of hatching, or emergence, has arrived, the little caterpillar cuts its way forth from the egg through an opening made either at the side or on the top. Many species have eggs which appear to be provided with a lid, a portion of the sh.e.l.l being separated from the remainder by a thin section, which, when the caterpillar has reached the full limit allowed by the egg, breaks under the pressure of the enlarging embryo within, one portion of the egg flying off, the remainder adhering to the leaf or twig upon which it has been deposited.

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 11.--Eggs of _Vanessa antiopa_, laid in a ma.s.s on a twig.]

CATERPILLARS

_Structure, Form, Color, etc._--The second stage in which the insects we are studying exist is known as the larval stage. The insect is known as a larva, or a caterpillar. In general caterpillars have long, worm-like bodies. Frequently they are thickest about the middle, tapering before and behind, flattened on the under side. While the cylindrical shape is most common, there are some families in which the larvae are short, oval, or slug-shaped, sometimes curiously modified by ridges and prominences.

The body of the larvae of lepidoptera consists normally of thirteen rings, or segments, the first const.i.tuting the head.

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 12.--Caterpillar of _Papilio philenor_ (Riley).]

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 13.--Head of caterpillar of _Papilio asterias_, front view, enlarged.]

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 14.--Head of caterpillar of _Anosia plexippus_, lower side, magnified 10 diameters: _lb_, labrum, or upper lip; _md_, mandibles; _mx_, maxilla, with two palpi; _lm_, labium, or lower lip, with one pair of palpi; _s_, spinneret; _a_, antenna; _o_, ocelli.

(After Burgess.)]

The head is always conspicuous, composed of h.o.r.n.y or chitinous material, but varying exceedingly in form and size. It is very rarely small and retracted. It is generally large, hemispherical, conical, or bilobed. In some families it is ornamented by horn-like projections. On the lower side are the mouth-parts, consisting of the upper lip, the mandibles, the antennae, or feelers, the under lip, the maxillae, and two sets of palpi, known as the maxillary and the l.a.b.i.al palpi. In many genera the labium, or under lip, is provided with a short, h.o.r.n.y projection known as the spinneret, through which the silk secreted by the caterpillar is pa.s.sed. On either side, just above the mandibles, are located the eyes, or ocelli, which in the caterpillar are simple, round, shining prominences, generally only to be clearly distinguished by the aid of a magnifying-gla.s.s. These ocelli are frequently arranged in series on each side. The palpi are organs of touch connected with the maxillae and the labium, or under lip, and are used in the process of feeding, and also when the caterpillar is crawling about from place to place. The larva appears to guide itself in great part by means of the palpi.

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 15.--Head of caterpillar of _Anosia plexippus_, side view, showing ocelli.]

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