REPRODUCTION AND METAMORPHOSIS. The eggs of all Lepidoptera are laid on or near the food-plant, that is, the plant upon which the young must feed. In number they vary from less than one hundred to several thousand, and are deposited continuously and rapidly as a rule. They may be placed singly. as is common among butterflies, or. as is more usual among inwhs, in clusters or masses. adhering to their support and perhaps to each other by a glutinous coat ing; while some moths prepare a sort of nest of hairs plucked from their bodies upon and within which the eggs rest, or otherwise protect them from observation or the weather. especially those destined to last through a northern winter or tropical season of &math. Their membranous shells take various forms. and are often exceed ingly beautiful when seen through the micro scope. "Some," says Holland, "are spherical, others hemispherical, conical, and I•ylindrical. Smile are barrel-shaped, others have the shape of a cheese, and still have the form of a turban. Alany of them are angled, some de pressed at the ends. Their surface variously ornamented. Sometimes they are ribbed . . . [mid] Isitween these ribs there is frequently found a tine network of raised lines variously arranged ks there is great variety in the form of the eggs, so also is there great variety in their color. Brown, blue, green, red, and yellow eggs occur. Greenish or greenish white are common tints. The eggs are often ornamented with (lids and lines of darker color. . . . Fertile a few days after they have been deposited, frequently undergo a change of color, and it is often possible with a magnifying glass to see through the thin shell the form of the embryo which is being developed within the egg." The eggs may hatch in a few days or only after months, for nnmerous species pass the win ter or the dry season iu the egg. The larva which is horn in the egg. and which escapes by an opening, of curious structure, at the upper end of the shell, called the micropyle. is known as a eaterloillar.
This larva, or 'caterpillar.' is a worm-like creature, and takes a form. color. etc., character istic of its group and species. The term properly
is restricted to lepidopterous larvir alone. though sometimes applied to other larvte. as those of the saw-flies. The head of the caterpillar is con spiethins, often large, and composed of horny (chitinims) material, taking various shapes. It is provided with six simple eyes (occ//i), usu ally to be seen only with the aid of a lens, which are either just above each mandible. or on each side of the head: there are two rudimentary an tenna•. The mouth is adapted for tearing, cutting, and masticating the substances on which the caterpillar is destined to feed, which are very various in the different species, although in all extremely different from the food of the perfect insect : it is provided with strong upper and lower jaws: a labium, or lower lip: and four palpi. in the mouth (labitim) also is situated the spinneret of those species which, they change into the chrysalis, envelop themselves in silken cocoons. (See SILK.) The first three seg ments of the body are each furnished with a pair of short logs which are hard. scaly, and clawed, and represent the six legs of the perfect insect : some of the remaining segments are also furnished with short feet (prolegs), varying in all from four to 10 in number, the last pair sit uated at the posterior extremity of the body: but these are membranons or fleshy, and armed at their extremity with minute hooks. Those caterpillars in which the prologs. (which are shed in the last molt) are pretty equally dis tributed along the body. move by a sort of regu lar crawling motion; but those which have only four such feet. near the posterior extremity, move by stretching the body out to its full length. tak ing hold by their fore feet. and then bending the body into an arch, thus bringing the hind feet birward, when the body is stretched out again for a new step. and so on: this last is the method of iirogfession of the geotnetrid moths, called loopers, inch-worms, or measurers. The larva appears to guide itself by its feelers (palpi). The heads of many caterpillars also have de fensive spines, or arrangements for emitting noisome liquids or odors, to be referred to later.