JUNE with its bright long days, and nights almost as bright, has swiftly and imperceptibly come upon us. It was but the other day and we were rejoicing that winter, with its frost, and snow, and fogs, and rains would soon be past; we hailed the first few gleams of bright sunshine as the harbinger of sweet spring. How soon it came, and with what joy we watched the springing of plants in hedgerow, field and wood; how we rejoiced to see the first bursting forth of leaf-buds, the opening of the early flowers, and to listen to the singing of the birds. But spring has all gone and we are almost in the full blaze of all the glories of summer, lovely blue skies, warm delicious days; the fields and lanes and trees are all covered with richest verdure; but in the midst of all its glories, one cannot but think how rapidly it has come, and the thought will creep over the mind, how soon it will be gone! Yes, spring is short, summer is short, autumn is short; yea the whole year is quickly gone; and shall we forget, dear children, that LIFE itself is short, and it too will soon be past and gone? How surely, loved ones, will you find this out! It seems but yesterday that, like many of you, I was but a little child, Frolicsome and thoughtless, and like the gay butterfly sipping at every pleasant thing, and I can scarcely believe that since then near threescore summers have passed away. How beautiful, and needful too, is the prayer, “So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
We might take a rapid survey of the activities of all living nature, animals, birds, insects, butterflies; the wonderful care and labor with which they feed and tend their young; and all the changes in flowers, shrubs, and trees; but as butterflies and moths are amongst the most prominent and interesting objects of this month shall we look a little minutely into the wonderful changes they pass through, from the time they first burst their little eggs till they die? Are you aware that not a single insect is born with wings? It does not get them till it has gone through several wonderful changes. Those who write big books on insects call these changes "the Met-a-mor-pho-sis of insects." This is a long word, but it simply means a change of shape. I have no doubt the youngest of you know that the beautiful butterfly was once what some might think an ugly-looking grub or caterpillar. Now these pass through four states, which are called the EGG state, the CATERPILLAR state, the IMAGO or perfect state.
Nearly all animals and birds take care of their young till they are able to care for themselves. Very few insects ever live to see their young. But the provision made by insects for their future little ones is one of the most remarkable features in all natural history. First the eggs have to be preserved from many dangers, some of them through the whole winter; then how are the young to procure food the moment they are hatched? The parent before it dies provides for both with such labor and skill as are perfectly astonishing.
For example, you have all seen around the twig of some fruit tree a number of beautiful little pearly bracelets; each of these circles contain from two hundred to three hundred eggs, which have been laid by a small moth, called the Lackey Moth. We give herewith a little engraving, that you may be better able to recognize what we refer to. They are a pretty sight on many a branch in the orchards, and you may have often seen them without thinking or knowing that every little pearl would in due time send forth a beautiful winged insect. All these eggs are fast glued to the twig, and not only that, but between the rows and over the eggs is deposited a thin coat of tenacious or fast-sticking gum, which secures the eggs from many insects that would gladly eat them up, and also protects them from rain and frost through the long winter months. There they remain in perfect safety till the warm suns of spring bring them to life. We give also the appearance of butterfly eggs, only you must know they are greatly magnified.
The Gnat builds an ingenious little boat, which is made entirely of its own eggs and a glutinous composition. Every egg if placed alone in the water would immediately sink, but with great skill and labor it fastens them together in the shape of a little boat, which no disturbance in the water can sink. When the boat is finished away flies the gnat and leaves it to its fate, floating on the water.
Some moths preserve their eggs by covering them with hair stripped from their own bodies, of which they are provided with a great quantity. Others, again, like the dragon-fly, deposit their eggs in the water, where the insect remains most of its life, and passes through all its changes but the last. When the appointed time comes it makes its way to the surface, throws off its old garment, and soars away into the air, As soon as the insect is hatched it is then called LARVA. If it has no feet it is called in common language a worm or maggot; if it has feet it bears the name of grub or caterpillar. Having lived its appointed time in this state, it spins for itself a covering made of a delicate silky fiber, which becomes a resting-place, or hangs itself up by its head, or goes into the ground, and becomes a chrysalis, and this is called the PUPA state. At last the insect reaches what naturalists call the IMAGO state. Hitherto it has had on a kind of mask, which it has now 'thrown off, and it comes forth an image of what it truly is. No doubt most of you have seen the silkworm pass through all its stages. If not, by all means procure some eggs, which you can easily do; get a little information as to how to take care of them, and witness the whole process for yourselves. On a near page we give you a very beautiful picture of all these changes.
The LARVA does nothing but eat, which it does most voraciously; at a given time it shrivels up, casts off its skin, takes on a new form, and becomes motionless; then works for itself a kind of sepulcher, where it loses the caterpillar existence, and that of the butterfly commences. At the decisive and final moment, the dawn of a new life, the little creature awakes from its torpor, becomes full of life, eats through its silken covering, bind appears under the form of a glittering, beautiful butterfly.
It is to protect them selves from the effects of rain and cold, and perhaps from their enemies too, that they surround themselves with a thick beautiful mantle of silk, and it is by this simple process that all the rich and often over-prized silks in the world have been produced.
The number of eggs laid by insects is sometimes enormous-the Wasp 3,000, the Ant from 4,000 to 5,000, a queen Bee from 40,000 to 50,000. A French writer, Pouchet, says respecting the maternal tenderness, intelligence, and prodigious perseverance of some of these insects that they are perfectly unbounded. “Some of these imitate the Rabbit, which denudes all its belly to form a soft pillow for its nest of young. They go even further than this animal; it only deprives itself of part of its wool, while some butterflies, to protect their offspring, tear all the hair off their bodies, and expire as soon as this act of devotion is accomplished. The nest of one of the pests of our forests is composed of a double shelter-a fine down, on which the eggs lie, and which covers them closely, and of an external layer, formed of dense hairs laid on like the slates of a roof, and forming an impenetrable cloth. Thus the young brood are doubly protected-against the severity of winter's cold and against its destructive rains. Some kind of gall insects immolate themselves in order to protect them. As the enormously-distended insect gradually expels its eggs, it heaps them up in a little pile, and when the body is quite cleared out, so that it resembles a hollow bladder, the female straightway covers her progeny with it, attaches the edges round them, and dies directly after; thus forming for them a convex, solid roof, which protects the eggs against the injurious agency of air and storms. The mother has paid for her child-birth with her life, and her young are born under the shelter of her mummified corpse.
“Live prey is imperatively necessary for some larva; they require it as soon as they are born, and as the mother cannot fetter it to their cradle she poisons it. But she only administers as much poison as is necessary to stupefy it, so that the young insect when it issues from the egg finds near it the dying insect, which it ends by devouring. One of these remarkable insects, called the Oly Fly, places one of its eggs at the bottom of a little hole which it makes in the ground; it then goes out to hunt, till it discovers a spider or caterpillar; and as soon as it finds one it stings it scientifically and bears it quite paralyzed to its nest. Finally, having placed its victim close to its egg, it closes the opening of the hollow with a little stone, and it takes wing, giving it no further heed. Could maternal tenderness do more?”
Thus we see that the insect, born in one shape dies in another, and the changes which it undergoes are the most important stages of its existence-the ugly caterpillar is transformed into a butterfly, gleaming with azure and gold, and from being one of the most voracious of eaters, having wonderful facilities for tearing to pieces vegetable or other matter, it is so changed that it acquires the most delicately-constructed eating apparatus that can possibly be conceived of, and henceforth it lives only on the nectar of flowers.
Surely we may well say, how wonderful are the thoughts and ways of God, and what infinite skill mark the construction of the smallest of His creatures! Oh, how wonderful the thought, how utterly past our comprehension, every one of these myriads of insects is the direct object of His care! It is good to think of God in this way; but I am persuaded many of my dear young friends know God in a very different way. You know Him as the God and Father of the Lord Jesus; now Jesus was all tenderness, all pity, all love; and more still-He was the Holy One, willing to die rather than that sin should go uncondemned. And Jesus was the full expression of all that God is, both as God and Father. And, dear children, it is only when I know God as my God and my Father in Christ Jesus that I can find any real profit or pleasure in getting to know His wondrous works. But never let us forget, if He clothe the grass of the field, and so cares for the smallest insect, how much more will He care for you who are His children by faith in Christ Jesus! H.