THE INSECT WORLD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14644, 1 April 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE INSECT WORLD.

,' <:;, •■mi iiiiMMiii ii' i iiiihimQMii ii ' ."•.;;;' : ' : ' ■ '-''.."r; THE RED ADMIRAL. HV GEORGE HOWES, F.E.S., AND, EDITH - * . , HOWES. Where sunbeams pierced the shaded bush a young tree-nettle grew. Beneath its spined leaves were clusters of /butterfly eggs, minute, barrel-shaped, pale green ribbed with white. ; One of them was ready to hatch. It split. A tiny caterpillar crawled out, rested, ate the egg skin he had just vacated; rested again, then crept down the leaf to'nibble a tender bud. ' He was an untiring feeder. From his first day 'to . that of his pupation, life was one long meal, varied only .by journeys from twig to twig, as; he exhausted the surrounding supplies of food, and by the necessary resting times for the sloughing of his skin ./ - ' He would draw from his body those soft gummy strands which in the air hardened into silken threads, and with /these he. would fasten several leaves together. In the little ; tent thus formed Tie lived in ; contented v concealment until he had nibbled ■ away , the green from all the leaves within reach. Then he migrated, made another tent, and fed again in quiet security. ' /.,; Consistent eating brought rapid growth, necessitating many skin castings. - With the changes of skin came strange changes of colour. To begin with, ha was a dusky yellow, with black spines. At his firnt casting, when a week old, he turned •brown. Ten days later, at ' the second casting, white markings showed/ on the new skin. Gradually he grew from reddish brown to dark brown with white dots and green spines to simulate the net-, tle leaves. At last he was full-grown. He ceased to eat. That period had memo for which all his eating had been but a preparation,- ; Choosing a 'fresh leaf he spun a "littlepatch of silk under •] it, . drawing several other leaves close for his last tent. Fixing the hooks of his hindlegs in the silk, he swung himself head downwards, and there hung. ; The slow hours passed. For a day and a; night he hung in that strange; apparently absurd, position. :. But : there was meaning in it. The fluids of his /body, were gravitating slowly, steadily sinking into the suspended, head. There the skin tightened with the pressure; swelled finally burst. Through the opening protruded the new form of the insect, no longer a soft /caterpillar, furnished with legs and eyes and jaws, but a mask chrysalis, cased in fast-hardening : jointed armour. There was need for haste. Before he grew too* rigid he must extricate i himself: from his old skin, and settle/ himself safely for pupation. He stretched and contracted, stretched and contracted again and again, with each fresh movement pushing back the skin until it lay a crumpled heap round his tail. -' ; << ; With a wonderful movement which was at once a twist and a leap, he jerked himself out of the skin, at the same time catching a little new set of hooks into the patch of silk. Again he hung suspended. . 1 Ho was no ordinary plain chrysalis, smooth and brown. • . Ha, was shaped ' al- ; most/like a little fluted shell, pointed at . the ends and high in the middle* Sin col-, i bur'' he was a biscuit yellow, spotted" here ' and.'there with brown; from his back I stood up a row of golden spines. For a ' fortnight he hung head down, a beanti- ' ful object, motionless and mysterious. 1 «., Early ? ono ••• summer . morning - the ciiry^ -* salis , stirred, shook, swung, stopped, I ,-swung' again. Something inside was strug- ■, gling to force its way out. ::-.;'Presently the case split. Slowly, with I: many writhingfl-and pushings, a' strange i creature emerged, pulling/himself on to • to top of his old armour. His body was i wet and fat and flabby, his feelers and . wings were not yet dilated, his new, •'• jointed legs were soft and uncertain. Ho [ crawled painfully from the tent into the < air and stood on a thick stem, i / The morning sun shone on him and; the> morning . wind played round him. ; For . hours he stood. •/ Steadily, with infinitely . rapid vibrations, wings and feelers were ; inflated. : His body ; dried to its; natural i size, ""feathers fluffed and shone, hia • legs grew firm. ■ • He was a splendid creature. His great , gold-powdered wings were marvels of colouring,—red passing into chocolate and i merging into velvety black, crossed by .;; bars of . red, splashed with whitennd dotted with blue, marked on the hind-wings by black rimmed blue-irised ,eyes. /Underneath they were, a glistening patchwork of soft rich browns, forming intri- , cats patterns, black eyes ringed with blue, • red and white in .curves and splashes of soft gorgeonsness. . * He rose into the noonday sunshine, his eyes gleaming, his: knobbed feelers throbbing with the joy of new life begun. • High above the > tree-tops he soared, • strong-winged and glorious, then straight as a dart he flew to where white/rata , flowers drew shim with their honeyed* . scent. First of the tiny air-craft to sail ; out into the new summer, he was.in- • deed the admiral of the butterfly fleet. , Nob for him" was the short life of a few , hours which was the fate of so many i smaller creatures of the air, For- him ; . were months of summer days, days of . honey feasts, of meetings and matings, . of swift air-voyages in search of food, of i glad < fSati'ierings .;and ■ dancing : and/ mock , "fights on the sunlight hills across., the [ plain. And when winter came, if by good for- • tune he had escaped all enemies and could find! a warm crevice, there he would hybemal<s; through the cold dark days, hissing' k; disturbed, ; but otherwise nofse- ; less, mo'valess, oblivious. With the re-? turn of liummer he would sally forth, again the admiral, the foremost of the fleet.