“What are these, Uncle George?” Tom asked, as he turned up a cabbage leaf and pointed to several white patches on its under side. The leaf next it was spotted just like it.
“Oh, Tom, how lucky we are! These are the eggs of the large white butterfly. Now we shall be able to follow up the whole life of this insect, and a wonderful life it is. Let us go right in and examine them. Take some cabbage leaves and some currant leaves to feed the hungry caterpillars with.”
“Our larva cage is now quite full,” said Uncle George, when he had put the caterpillars in.
“Why do you not put them into the same room, Uncle George?”
“There are two reasons for that, Frank. First, they live upon different kinds of food. The hairy caterpillar, or ‘woolly bear,’ as boys call it, feeds upon nettles, the cabbage caterpillar prefers cabbage leaves, while the currant caterpillar will only eat currant leaves.
1. Caterpillar and Eggs of Cabbage Butterfly. 2. Egg magnified.
“Second, the woolly bear will sometimes eat up his smooth-skinned friends. Now, get your glasses and have a peep at the beautiful eggs of the ‘large white’ or ‘cabbage’ butterfly.”
“Why, they are not at all like eggs,” said Frank, as he closely looked at them with his glass.
“They are like little pieces of carved ivory all shaped alike,” Frank replied.
“Yes, but that does not give us a very clear idea of their shape,” observed his uncle. “Come on, Tom.”
“They are like little Indian clubs with the handles cut off, only they are beautifully marked with long, slender ridges and cross bars.”
“That is really a very good account of them, Tom. They are arranged in patches. Count and let me know how many eggs are in each bunch.”
The boys counted all the groups of eggs, and found that there were eight eggs in some, nine in others, but that most of them contained ten or more.
“Now, how many egg patches are there?” asked Uncle George.
“There are seven patches on my leaf,” said Frank.
“That is about one hundred and fifty eggs altogether,” said Uncle George.
“Has each of these bunches of eggs been laid by one butterfly?” asked Frank.
“It is more than probable that one butterfly laid the whole lot,” his uncle replied; “for the white butterfly lays, as a rule, over two hundred eggs.”