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Butterflies and Moths, Shown to the Children

Chapter 32: PLATE XV THE ORANGE TIP (1 and 2)
By Theodore Wood
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About This Book

The book introduces children to common butterflies and moths, explaining their life cycle from egg through caterpillar, repeated molts, pupal stages in chrysalids or cocoons, and emergence as adults; it describes wing scales, the coiled proboscis used for feeding, and observable features that distinguish butterflies from moths such as antennal shape, body constriction, and resting wing posture. Short, accessible text accompanies forty-eight colored plates depicting adults and caterpillars with brief identification notes, and it offers practical tips on where to find eggs, caterpillars, and chrysalids and how to observe these insects safely.

PLATE XIV

1. Swallow-tail
2. Swallow-tail Caterpillar

PLATE XIV
THE SWALLOW-TAIL (1 and 2)

This is the finest of all our British butterflies, and a most beautiful creature it is as it flits to and fro in the sunshine. But I am afraid that you are not very likely to see it alive, for it is only found in the fens of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, while even there it is not as common as it used to be. But if ever you spend a summer holiday in the Norfolk Broads you may, perhaps, see one of these lovely butterflies flying swiftly past you.

The caterpillar is almost as handsome as the butterfly. It is bright green in colour, with velvety-black rings, which are spotted with red. And just behind its head it has an odd little forked organ, from which it pours out a drop of liquid when it is frightened. This liquid has a very nasty smell, and no doubt it prevents birds from feeding upon the caterpillar.

This caterpillar feeds upon hog’s fennel, wild carrot, and marsh milk-parsley. When it has reached its full size it climbs up the stem of a reed, fastens itself to it by spinning a kind of silken belt round its body, and turns into a yellowish-green chrysalis, from which the butterfly appears during the following summer.

PLATE XV
THE ORANGE TIP (1 and 2)

You must often have noticed this very pretty insect flying about in the spring, for it is quite common in almost all parts of the country. And you cannot possibly mistake the male for any other butterfly, because of the large patch of orange-yellow at the tips of the front wings. But the female is without this orange patch, so that you might easily take her for one of the small white butterflies. If you can look at her closely, however, you will notice that in the middle of her front wings she has a small black spot shaped just like the crescent moon, and that the lower surface of her hind-wings is marbled with yellowish-green.

The caterpillar of this pretty butterfly feeds upon cuckoo-flower, or “lady’s smock,” as it is sometimes called, and also upon hedge-garlic, tower mustard, and yellow rocket. In colour it is green, with a white stripe running along each side of its body. When it is fully fed it fastens itself by a silken belt to the stem of its food-plant, and turns into a long, slender, greenish-brown chrysalis, shaped like a bow, from which the butterfly appears in the following May.