Butterfly net

“ The beating net, which is constructed on the same general plan as the butterfly net, is valuable here as a time saver. By holding the handle of the net firmly in one hand and quickly sweeping over the plants first from right to left, and then, after quickly turning the net again, sweeping from left to right, most insects coming within reach of the sweep will fall into the bag and may be easily taken out and put into the collecting-vials. ”

“ The natives catch them by waving sticks with burning coals tied to their ends through the air, by the light of which they are attracted, and so come within reach of a long-handled butterfly net. When caught, they are put into a box covered with a little netting of wire, and there kept till wanted. They are fed upon sugar-cane, and twice a day must be bathed in tepid water. ”

“ The boy who would intrap a butterfly must follow where it leads, and stop neither for walls, ditches, nor swamps, or the prize will be lost. There are few butterflies so strong on the wing as the Archippus. But it is worn out at last, and stops to rest for an instant on a field lily—a fatal instant for the butterfly, for now the net descends skillfully, and the great insect is fluttering in its meshes. Gather the net carefully in your hand so that the creature will have no room to flutter and break its wings. Now pour a very little ether on its head—two drops are enough—and it lies motionless. ”

“ When the insect has alighted upon the ground it is best to clap the net over it and then to raise the net with one hand. Very many species have the habit of flying upward. This is par [ 32] ticularly true of the skippers, a group of very vigorous and swift-flying butterflies. The writer prefers, if possible, to clap the net over the specimens and then to allow them to rise, and, by inserting the wide-mouthed collecting-jar below, to capture them without touching them at all with the fingers. ”

“ This is a question often less difficult to answer in words than in action, for many of our butterflies are gifted not only with strong prejudices against the inside of a net, but with very strong powers of escaping from that unpleasant situation. Still, by aid of proper apparatus, a sure eye and hand, and often, of a good pair of legs, there is no butterfly, however fleet and wary, that we may not feel ourselves a tolerable match for. ”

“ Finally both pairs of wings are fully expanded, and the butterfly is likely to walk to the top of the support, where it rests for an hour or two while its tissues harden, before it attempts to fly.
In early autumn out of doors these butterflies start southward on their long journey. They often gather in great flocks and roost at night on wayside shrubs and trees. At this season it is easy to catch them in an insect net and bring them indoors for pets. They live for a long while and lend interest and beauty to living room or window garden. ”

“ The bag of the net should be sufficiently long to allow of its being completely closed when hanging from the ring on either side. It is possible to sweep into the net an insect which is fluttering through the air, and then by a turn of the hand to close the bag and to capture the specimen. ”

“ The insects will then fly upward and settle near the top of the bag. The collector puts the open jar with his right hand into the ring of the net and holding the bag with the left hand brings the jar under the butterfly, and then claps his left hand over the mouth of the jar, thus securing the insect in the jar, where after a couple of seconds it will be stunned by the fumes and fall to the bottom. ”

“ If these are rather low, you should strike the net smartly upwards from below them, but of course this movement is impossible with insects that happen to be almost above your reach. If a butterfly is busily engaged in searching out its sweet food, flying from flower to flower, don't think of giving chase, but follow it up stealthily, and you will sooner or later get an opportunity of striking at it while in the air. ”

“ The introduction and spread of such a pest is of interest in itself, but in this case there is to be noted the additional fact that the presence of this foreigner has practically led to the extinction of two native species of butterflies, both closely related to each other and to the invader and both feeding upon the same plants. An almost pure white butterfly—the Gray-veined White—was formerly exceedingly abundant in many of the Northern states, while farther south there was another species, the Checkered White, which was also abundant. ”

“ The sap exuding from holes in bark made by woodpeckers, or from the tappings of the maple trees by man, the nectar of willow catkins, the moisture of roadside pools—these help to yield a precarious sustenance to these butterflies after their long winter fast. They remain upon the wing week after week, while spring slowly progresses in the northern regions they inhabit. When at last the leaves push out on their food trees—willow, birch, and elm—the females lay their eggs and then, having lived to what for a butterfly is a ripe old age, they die, after nearly ten months of adult existence. ”

“ The genus, which is quite large, reaches its greatest development in the tropics of the Old World, and there is only one species in the western hemisphere, which may have been introduced in the old days of the slave trade. Most of the species are mimics and the strange thing is that the mimicking form is generally the female, which has the color and markings of some one or other of the milkweed butterflies of the African and oriental tropics. The female of our species patterns after the markings of Danais chrysippus, a common milkweed butterfly of Africa. ”

“ Even the adult butterflies of this species have to be on the lookout for enemies. During the long months of their life many of them probably succumb to the attacks of birds or other creatures. I have seen but one such tragedy. While riding along a country highway with a bird-loving friend one spring day we saw a male Maryland yellow-throat flit by with a Mourning-cloak in his mouth. The bird lit on a fence, from which I startled him so that he dropped the butterfly, a worn and faded, half-dead specimen. The places where the bird held the insect were indicated by missing pieces of the wings. ”

“ None make a finer show in the cabinet, and few tempt pursuit more strongly than does this golden beauty when on the wing.
For many years past, and up to quite a recent period, the appearance of this butterfly in any abundance was a phenomenon only occurring at uncertain periods, separated by intervals of several years. In one season, perhaps, hardly a solitary specimen would be seen, and in the very next, a swarm of them would spread over the southern counties, delighting the fly-catcher and puzzling the naturalist to find a sufficient reason for {72}this sudden burst of insect-life. ”

“ The same volume shows that no less than two hundred and twenty-five new species of butterflies alone were described during the year, besides a host of so-called varieties. The new species were principally from Africa, Asia, and South America.
As I have said, butterflies are “scaly-winged insects.” Anyone who has ever taken a moth or butterfly into his fingers has observed that the creature in its struggles leaves behind a dustlike substance. Examined under a microscope, this is seen to be composed of minute scales. Magnified forms of some of these scales are represented in Figure 1 ”

“ Such are a few of the devices that ornament the earliest cradle of the butterfly; but probably those of every species would well repay their examination to any one who possesses a microscope.
Prompted by a most remarkable instinct, and one that could not have originated in any experience of personal advantage, the female butterfly, when seeking a depository for her eggs, selects with unerring certainty the very plant which, of all others, is best fitted for the support of her offspring, who, when hatched, find themselves surrounded with an abundant store of their proper food. ”

“ While the number of species which are found in the tropics vastly exceeds the number of species found in the temperate zone, it is apparently true that the number of specimens of certain species is far more numerous in temperate regions than in the tropics. Very rarely in tropical countries are great assemblages of butterflies to be seen, such as may be found in the summer months in the United States, swarming around damp places, or hovering over the fields of blooming clover or weeds. ”

“ GUIDE TO BUTTERFLIES
By Samuel Hubbard Scudder.
22 uncolored plates, showing about 100 species.
THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE WEST COAST
By W. G. Wright.
32 colored plates, with figures of 487 species.
THE OPEN LETTER
There are no small things in Nature, whatever the text-books say. All things in life are large and important if we will but have them so. The terms “large” and “small” are simply relative. To the eye of the insect world the delicate butterfly is a monster with widespread wings that completely cover the sky. ”

“ Banta points out in various issues of Nature, in 1912, that all the evidence available shows that in North America birds very rarely capture butterflies. Field naturalists scarcely ever witness a butterfly chased by a bird. Of 40,000 stomachs of birds examined very few were found to contain remains of butterflies.
In 1911 the butterflies of the species Eugonia californica were so numerous that “the ground was often blackened with them, and great swarms of them filled the air from morning to evening.” ”

“ Make haste and kill the butterfly and come away, or you will catch a fever," said Jimmy.
The gorgeous insect having been secured in Dick's collecting box, they went off in search of other prey. On a common just beside the wood they found abundance of the beautiful blue butterflies, which shone like flakes of summer sky, and also the small copper butterfly, which rivals the most brightly burnished copper in its sheen. These were playing about in the greatest abundance, the small coppers settling on a blue flower, or a blue butterfly on a red flower, forming most artistic contrasts of colour. ”

“ These larvæ have biting mouth-parts and feed on vegetation, some of them being very injurious, for example the army-worms, cut-worms, codlin moth worms, etc. The adult moths and butterflies take only liquid food, or no food at all, and are wholly harmless to vegetation. The structure and life-history of a butterfly has already been studied, and in the more general conditions [Pg 206] of structure and life-history there is much similarity in the many insects of this order. The eggs are usually laid on the food-plant of the larva ”

“ It has long since been ascertained to occur in almost every county in England and Wales, as far north as Sutherlandshire in Scotland, and is widely distributed in Ireland.
On the chalk downs and cliffs the butterfly has the under side of its hind wings so admirably agreeing in colour and marking with the soil, etc., that although one may watch it settle a few yards ahead, it is not to be seen when one reaches the spot. Whilst we are intent on the search the insect starts up, flies a short distance, and there repeats the disappearing butterfly trick. ”

“ In nearly every case where the food is thus restricted the insect feeds only upon species which are closely related to one another, generally falling within a single genus according to the classification of the botanists.
There has been much discussion in regard to the way in which the mother butterfly knows the particular species which she chooses for oviposition. Experiments apparently have shown that she is not dependent upon the sense of sight but rather upon the sense of smell, which as is well known is much more highly developed in insects than in the higher animals. ”

“ Curtis, in his "Farm Insects," mentions the capture, near Oldham in Lancashire, of a male specimen, which had all the wings of a bright yellow colour.
Most juvenile butterfly hunters, unblest by scientific knowledge of insect life, imagine that this and the last owe their difference in size simply to their being old and young individuals of the same name; forgetting—or, rather, never having heard—that butterflies never grow in the slightest degree after once getting their winged form; only as caterpillars do they grow. ”

“ Hence these composite flowers are great favourites with all insects whose suckers are long enough to reach the bottom of their slender tubes.
The butterfly's view of life is doubtless on the whole a cheerful one. Yet his existence must be something so nearly mechanical that we probably overrate the amount of enjoyment which he derives from flitting about so airily among the flowers, and passing his days in the unbroken amusement of sucking liquid honey. Subjectively viewed, the butterfly is not a high order of insect ”

“ Among the scale-winged insects, however, carnivorous caterpillars are rare, seldom occurring among the moths and in hardly more than one species among the butterflies. This one exception is the modest-looking little butterfly fancifully called the Wanderer, perhaps because instead of frequenting the flowery fields where other butterflies congregate it wanders in and out among the alders by brooks and ponds, alighting oftener upon a leaf or twig than upon a flower—the latter apparently lacking for it the attraction it has for other butterflies. ”