Frail Children of the Air: Excursions Into the World of Butterflies |
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Frail Children of the Air: Excursions Into the World of Butterflies (1895) Samuel Hubbard Scudder No preview available - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
abdominal segments abundant Ageronia Aglais alight allied American animal Anosia plexippus appear Argynnini Basilarchia belong birds body Brenthis brettus butter butterflies cardui caterpillars chrysalids Cloak Euvanessa antiopa closely Clouded Sulphur color common confined creatures Cyaniris distinct double brooded eggs emitted England entomologist Europe European Eurymus fact fauna faunus feed female flies flowers food plant fore wings Fritz Müller genera genus habit Hesperidae hibernaculum hibernation hind wings insects instances Jasoniades known Laertias leaf leaves less live Lycaeninae male Melitaeini mimicked mimicry moths Mourning Cloak Mourning Cloak Euvanessa myrina nature nearly nest Nymphalidae observed occurs odor Oeneis Old World orange Pamphilini Papilioninae peculiar Pierinae Pieris Polygonia probably produced protection Radoboj region resemblance Satyrids Satyrinae scales season seen sexes side sometimes species spines spiracles spot spring Spring Azure structure summit Swallow-tail terflies thoracic segments tion tropical upper surface Vanessa Vanessa atalanta Vanessini White Mountain
Popular passages
Page 190 - One evening, when we were about ten miles from the Bay of San Bias, vast numbers of butterflies, in bands or flocks of countless myriads, extended as far as the eye could range. Even by the aid of a telescope it was not possible to see a space free from butterflies. The seamen cried out " it was snowing butterflies," and such in fact was the apjxarance.
Page 1 - You would declare," say they, "upon beholding some insects, that they had robbed the trees of their leaves to form for themselves artificial wings, so exactly do they resemble them in their form, substance, and vascular structure ; some representing green leaves, and others those that are dry and withered. Nay, sometimes this mimicry is so exquisite that you would mistake the whole insect for a portion of the branching spray of a tree.
Page 1 - To such perfection, indeed, has nature in them carried her mimetic art, that you would declare, upon beholding some insects, that they had robbed the trees of their leaves to form for themselves artificial wings, so exactly do they resemble them in their form, substance, and vascular structure; some representing green leaves, and others those that are dry and withered. 3 Nay, sometimes this mimicry is so exquisite, that you would mistake the whole insect for a portion of the branching spray of a...
Page 4 - Thus I had an opportunity of proving in Brazil that some birds, if not all, reject the Heliconii butterflies, which are closely resembled by butterflies of other families and by moths. I observed a pair of birds that were bringing butterflies and...
Page 6 - I believe . . . that the specific mimetic analogies exhibited in connexion with the Heliconidce are adaptations — phenomena of precisely the same nature as those in which insects and other beings are assimilated in superficial appearance to the vegetable or inorganic substance on which, or amongst which, they live.
Page 88 - I cautiously approached with my forceps, shuffled on one side just as the instrument was on the point of closing, and thus escaped. But a far more singular fact, is the power which this species possesses of making a noise.* Several times when a pair, probably male and female, were chasing each other in an irregular course, they passed within a few yards of me ; and I distinctly heard a clicking noise, similar to that produced by a toothed wheel passing under a spring catch.f The noise was continued...
Page 51 - Thus it appears that butterflies had recognised the true affinity of Brunfelsia long before botanists did so. There is yet another and more curious instance of our butterflies confirming the arrangement of plants in Bentham and Hooker's "Genera Plantarum.
Page 85 - Hampshire forests and forest fauna behind us, we come first upon insects (there are others besides B. montinus) recalling those of the northern shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the coast of Labrador opposite Newfoundland ; and when we have attained the summit a butterfly greets us which represents the fauna of Atlantic Labrador and Greenland. Interesting as this is, how very meagre such a showing appears by the side of our knowledge of the...
Page 83 - Oeneis semidea will be found far within the limits of the lower alpine region ; for the fierce blasts of wind which sweep around these lofty elevations must sometimes hurl these feeble flutterers far down toward the wooded valleys, as I have myself seen ; and there is no doubt that they can find their food plant all through the lower alpine region. Nevertheless, the contrast between the occasional and unwilling visitor and the swarms which in their season crowd the upper plateaus is very marked and...