Cape Breton's Magazine

ing generation comes out late in the summer because they have to last through the winter, you see. But most other butterflies • such as the White Admiral--go through the wintertime as a chrysalis or a pupa (two names for the same stage). And the underneath of the White Admiral is very much like the top, because it doesn't winter over and doesn't need to look like a dead leaf. This is the Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glau- cus). Actually, there are three Tiger Swal? lowtails up here • but this is the only one I've been able to collect. The other two are not very common, but other people have caught them. In Florida this butterfly gets to be about six inches across, but here they are quite small and dark and stunted. These are Underwing Moths, Catocala. They're called Underwing because the underwing is the only part that's coloured. Those are nice because when the wings are folded down the colour doesn't show and they Iqok just like bark. (Do they winter over too?) No, they don't, but they do come out in the fall and then they lay their eggs and the eggs overwinter and they hatch first thing in the spring and feed on the? young leaves as they first come out. (Except for timing, is the life-cycle pretty much the same for all but? terflies and moths?) Yes, very much the same. The basic life-cycle of the butterfly, most small ones, is eggs, larva, pupa, and the adult. Now, in most of these things only the larva feeds. Of course the egg doesn't eat anything. The larva feeds and grows un? til it's full-grown, and then it turns into a pupa which is a resting stage. It doesn't move, doesn't feed, doesn't do anything. And from that hatches the adult, which is the breeding population. They may or may not feed. Some of them don't feed at all. Some of these big things like the big Polyphemus moth, they don't feed at all. They don't have mouth parts even. They are so atrophied they are not functional. They only live a- bout three or four days. (Well, what's their function?) Just breeding. The females are able to attract males from as far as seven miles away, if the wind is right. So a great many of them don't feed in the adult stage. Those that do feed, feed on nectar, flowers, and so on, which just gives them an energy source. They have relatively short lives. The maximum life-span in the adults of most of these is a couple of • i'M.i~iMAt'im Comma Butterfly Tiger Swallowtails in box with Whites Underwing Moths C & G MadEOD IIMITED Books on Caoe Breton Don't Slip on the Soap by Andy MacDonald 7 • 95 Memoirs of a Cape Breton Doctor by Dr. MacMillan 7'95 Cleaning the Bones by Joseph MacLeod (Looking back at our Crofter roots) '.95 More Essays in Cape Breton History ed. by Robert Morgan 2.50 Highland Community on the Bras d'Or by P.J. MacKenzie Campbell 5*50 The Hidden Heritage at St. Ann's by James B. Lamb 2.95 and The Third Collectors* Edition of Cape Breton's Magazine 5.50 The Largest Display of Souvenirs In Cape Breton Mail Orders 361 Charlott* StrMt - P. O. Box 658 SYDNEY, NOVA SCOTIA CAHAbA A specialty Cape Breton's Maga8ine/22