Butterfly
a large family of insects allied to moths or millers. All butterflies have four membranous wings covered with scales, or modified hairs. The mouth parts are formed for sucking nectar and plant juices. For a general statement of the four stages in the life of a butterfly, see article on INSECTS. The stages are called, the egg, larva or caterpillar, pupa or chrysalis, and adult or butterfly. The term chrysalis applied to the pupa stage means golden. It refers to the gold spots with which the pupa of the butterfly is frequently marked.
Butterflies may be known from moths in several ways. They fly by day. Their antennae or feelers are knobbed, never pointed or curved at the tip. They hold their wings upright above the back when at rest, and the abdomen of the butterfly is slender. If all these characteristics are present, the insect is a butterfly, not a moth.
Caterpillars live on foliage. The adults are provided with long, coiled sucking tubes which they straighten out and use to draw nectar from flowers. There are not less than 30,000 kinds of butterflies. South America is butterfly headquarters. Each has its favorite plant on which to deposit eggs, and each goes to its favorite flower for honey. Some are named from their color, some from the shape of their wings, and some from the locality in which they are found. The White Mountain butterfly, for instance, is found only on the tops of the White Mountains and similar peaks in Colorado. The shape and direction of the veins in the wings are depended on by entomologists in describing a species. Some of the common names are monarch, viceroy, meadow-brown, grayling, hop-merchant, mourning-cloak, tortoise-shell, painted-beauty, admiral, Baltimore, snout, long-beak, metal-work, long-stripe, hair-streak, wanderer, blue, copper, sulphur, dog's head, orange-tip, checkered-white, cabbage, swallow-tail, and others requiring a volume to describe them.
The study of moths and butterflies is a fascinating branch of natural history. In the principal cities of Great Britain, there are museums of natural history in which cases of local butterflies are given a prominent place. Local collections are gaining in favor in America. The wing of the butterfly is very fragile. The scales are likely to be disturbed and rubbed off by handling. Former methods of pinning these fragile insects in cases have proven unsatisfactory. Specimens are broken up by handling and shaking. Mr. William D. Denton has invented a method of mounting the insect with outstretched wings between two squares of glass. A specimen mounted in this way may be handled without damage. Both sides of the wings may be seen to advantage.
Collecting has acquired commercial importance. A local collection of sixty butterflies is worth about $25. The leaf butterfly of India is worth $5; the owl butterfly of Colombia, $10; one of the Jamaica butterflies, $20. Occasionally a collector receives an extraordinary price for some rarity. A butterfly was sold to one of the Rothschilds for $3,000. It is said that Worth, the Parisian man-milliner, gives a standing order for butterflies not in his collection. He desires them in order to make a study of the combination of colors.
Although butterflies move with seeming languor, they are not easily captured. Many of them sail at heights beyond the reach of a net. The collector studies the habits of each butterfly, and knows what flowers each frequents. In this way he is able to be in the right spot when the butterfly alights on its favorite flower to sip nectar. Butterflies have queer tastes. Some species are attracted by stale fruit. A rotten banana planted in the fork of a bush proves a lure for certain species. One African species is attracted by the scent of civet.
A favorite device of the collector is to smear the trunk of a tree with a sweet mixture, such as common brown sugar and thick molasses. This mixture he moistens with beer and rum. Trees along the edge of a forest are best for the purpose. The collector passes from tree to tree with his collecting jar, and is very likely to find butterfly beauties sipping away at the sweets so intoxicated that they can be brushed into the jar before they know what he is about. A second round, made in the night with dark lantern in hand, is likely to result in the capture of moths. Many rare specimens, both of butterflies and moths, have been taken in this way. In case live specimens cannot be secured, the collector gathers cocoons and waits for them to hatch out.
The apparent leisure and gay appearance of these insects is the basis of the expression, "butterflies of fashion," as applied to society people. Spenser, describing Minerva's wondrous needlework in the contest with Arachne, says:
With excellent device and wondrous slight,
Fluttering among the olives wantonly,
That seemed to live, so like it was in sight;
The velvet nap which on his wings doth lie,
The silken down with which his back is dight,
His broad outstretched horns, his hairy thighs,
His glorious colors, and his glistening eyes.