CHAPTER III
BUTTERFLY METAMORPHOSIS
Some insects, grasshoppers for example, pass through an incomplete metamorphosis; that is, the young grasshopper is very much like its parents except as regards size. This is the same sort of development found among birds, reptiles, and other vertebrates. The egg of a butterfly, however, does not hatch into a miniature replica of its parents, but into an altogether different sort of creature, which must pass through a complete metamorphosis before it becomes a butterfly. To put the matter briefly, there are four distinct stages in the life of a butterfly: the egg, the caterpillar, the chrysalis, and the imago, or butterfly proper.
Female butterflies are equipped with organs called ovaries which produce ova, and male butterflies have testes which produce sperm. By an act called copulation (in which the male and female abdomens are locked together by appropriate appendages) the sperm of the male is introduced into the body of the female. A single spermatozoon fuses with each ovum, and the result is a fertilized egg. The female deposits the egg upon a green leaf, and as a rule each species is limited to one or two particular kinds of plants. Butterfly eggs are small, but always large enough to be seen with the naked eye, and they vary widely in shape and color as well as in size.
Most butterfly eggs hatch within a week or two, producing worm-like larvae called caterpillars, which differ in appearance according to the species, but whose general characteristics are well known. The principal business of a caterpillar is to eat; no sooner has it emerged from the egg than it devours the egg-shell, and then sets to work on the leaves of the food plant. Its growth is so rapid that the outer skin must soon be shed, and this shedding process is known as moulting. Most caterpillars moult about four times. The caterpillar stage usually lasts only a month or so, but there are a few species which hibernate and spend the winter as caterpillars.
Fig. II.—The Viceroy (Basilarchia disippus), an example of the family Nymphalidae, or four-footed butterflies. This is the butterfly that mimics the Monarch; see section on Protective Mimicry. A, egg; B, caterpillar; C, chrysalis; D, imago.
When the caterpillar is fully grown it spins a little silken button on some solid object, hangs itself up by the tail, and undergoes a final moult. When the old skin peels off this time it reveals, not a caterpillar with a bright new skin, but a different sort of creature altogether. The apparently lifeless pupa or chrysalis shows some of the characteristics of a butterfly, but the wings and legs are folded up, the antennae are cemented fast against the body, and the whole structure covered by a horny, tight-fitting sheath. This state of affairs usually lasts only three or four weeks, but some butterflies, particularly in temperate climates, pass the winter in the pupal state.
When the chrysalis stage is over the outer skin bursts open about the head, and the imago—the butterfly proper—crawls out. The newly emerged butterfly is a sorry-looking specimen; the wings are very small and flaccid, and it can do no more than cling to some convenient support, usually the empty skin of the chrysalis. After a while, however, the body juices flow out into the wings, which expand and harden, and in a few hours the young butterfly is flitting from flower to flower with its fellows.
Ordinarily the imago does not live long—often only a few days. Just as the caterpillar’s sole business is to eat, the mature butterfly has only one important function, and that is reproduction. It speedily finds a mate (that’s what its wings are for), contributes its quota of ova or sperm to produce another generation of caterpillars, and its ephemeral existence as a butterfly is over.
