Butterflies [pp. 368-369]

LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.
from its shape, and which
is one of the largest and muost
brilliant of this country or
Europe. The wings are yellow and black, and the broad
black bands of the margin are
dusted with blue, while the
six yellow crescents end in
reddish eyes, bordered with
blue. In Corsica and Sardinia there is a very scarce
species of this. The Parnassus Apollo belongs to the Alps
and Pyrenees. Its wings are
yellowish white, with ornaments of black and vermilion-red. It is, in the larva
state, a silk-maker in a small
way. The Le Gaze has black
veins on white gauze wings.
These have been seen, in
northern Russia, so numerous as to be mistaken for
flakes of snow. The Cabbage Butterfly is white,
edged with black, and very
common in Europe. A
more beautiful kind has its
white wings veined with
pale green. Another white
kind has orange tips. Then
we have insects of brimstone-yellow, very gay;
others with delicate purple streakings, and, most
rare and beautiful, the glorified things of rich Mazarin blue, which color gives
their name. There are occasional specimens of the
Convolvulus Moth, with
the great forewings of green,
striped with pink, the hinder ones black with a broad
band of pink, edged by
afine line of white. These,
with wings four inches in
expanse, their large brillianteyes, and great power of flight, sometimes rival the butterflies.
To even give brief descriptions of these beautiful insects would much
exceed our limit, and a
mere catalogue of names
would fill no small space.
The Emperor Moth bears
on its wings many of the
marks of the rare butterflies, including the peacock-eyes and the tortoise-shell markings. The
Atlas, of the Athei class,
is the most magnificent
of the moth family, and
one of the largest, as its
wings have more than
four and a quarter inches' expanse.
If
Swallow-tailed Butterfly.
The Convolvulus Sphinx.
Death's-head Hawk-Moth.
369
The only specimens come
to us from China. Among
the singular varieties may be
mentioned the Wood-Leop ard, known in Europe as
the Coquette.
The fine dust which gives
the color to the wings, and
which adheres to the fingers
when we touch them, was
long thought to consist of
minute feathers, making the
insect a kind of bird. But
more powerful microscopes
show us myriads of scales,
each a little perfection of
shape and color, and each
overlapping the lower one,
like the scales of a fish. Per haps these delicate things are
the armor of proof against
the rain-drops!
The many processes
through which the in sect passes in the various
stages of its life-the cater pillar that frees itself from
its old skin by the exer cise of wondrous art and
strength, combined with the
decay of Nature-the silk en prison that is woven,
and the little four-winged
insect angel that comes
forth at last -all these
are matters well known
and often described; never
more pleasantly, however,
than in Louis Figuier's "In sect World."
Another interest than
that of curiosity has joined
with the observation of this
wonder of insect resurrec tion; for humanity, in its
dread of annihilation, and
its yearning for immortal ity, has caught the thought
that the lesser life may
image forth the greater.
Certainly, to those who
A wish confirmation to the
promises of Holy Writ, the
hope is pleasant and the
thought is beautiful, that
poor humanity, with its
caterpillar appetites and
its world chrysalis, may
one day cast off both,
of/; and sport as a winged
L=~ immortality in the In~: finite sunlight. Singu lar but not unlovely
,x~~- it is, that our highest
hopes compare them selves to the germina tion of a seed, or the
'S life of a worm. Man,
tired of work, hopes to
be a butterfly.