the Butterfly, in zoology; a genus of insects belonging to the order of lepidoptera. It Papilio has four wings, imbricated with a kind of downy scales; the tongue is convoluted in a spiral form; and the body is hairy. The antennae grow thicker towards their extremity, and are in most subjects terminated by a kind of capitulum or head. The wings, when fitting, are erect, insomuch that their extremities meet or touch one another above the body. They fly in the day-time. There are 273 species, principally distinguished by the colour of their wings. Mr Barbut has divided them into four sections, which he thus characterizes. 1. The equites, or riders, the upper wings being longer from the hindermost angle to the point than to the base; their antennae are often filiform. They are divided into Trojans; which for the most part are black, with blood-like spots on the breast; and Greeks, whose breast has no such marks; the small eye being placed at the angle of the anus; and of these some are without bands or fillets, others with bands or fillets. 2. The heliconians, whose wings are narrow throughout, often bare; the upper oblong, the under ones very short. 3. The Danae, whose wings are entire; the candidi, with whitish wings; the felivi, with variegated wings. 4. The nymphals, whose wings are denticulated; divided into the gemmati, whose wings have eyes; subdivided into those which have eyes on all the wings; those which have them on the upper wings; those which have them on the under ones; and the phalerati, whose wings are without eyes. 5. The plebeians, whose larva is often contracted; divided into the rurales, with darkish spots on their wings; and the urbicolae, with spots generally transparent on their wings.

The beauties of this elegant part of the creation are well known; and there are few who can contemplate them without astonishment. We have the following account of their various stages of existence in Barbut*.

"The caterpillar (says he) informs us in what manner it prepares for the lethargic sleep, which is to serve as a transition to its metamorphosis. The period of its reptile life being accomplished, it changes its form to become an inhabitant of the air. The chrysalis is at once the tomb of the caterpillar and the cradle of the butterfly. It is within a silken cocoon, or under a transparent veil, that this great miracle of nature is daily wrought. But how does the weak defenceless butterfly, scarce unfolded into existence, go about to make its way through the impenetrable walls that prevented it from insult during its torpid state? How will it bear the effulgence of the light, and keenness of the air? Take one of their coons, make an aperture in it with a pair of scissors, fix it against a glass; observe the insect, you will perceive the organs gradually displaying themselves; follow his operations with your eye; he struggles to break loose from his confinement. Observe the frothy liquor which it disgorges; that liquor serves to soften the end of the cocoon, which at length yields to the butting of the insect's head. By degrees the bar is removed, and the butterfly springs forth; the impression of the air acts upon its wings, slightly apparent at first, but which afterwards expand with remarkable rapidity. The display of them is sometimes checked by drought, in which case the insect is deprived of the faculty of flying. The rostrum, extended under the covering of the chrysalis, is in this last state rolled up into spiral, and lodged in a recess prepared for it. The fly is now perfectly formed; it gently flutters, then takes its flight, and pursues its mazy wanderings over the enamelled meads, plunging its rostrum into the cups of nectarous flowers."

Of papilio, No. 1. Barbut gives the following account:

"The ground colour of the insect is a beautiful glossy black, the superior wings are ornamented with white forked clouds; the inferior ones are adorned with spots of a blood-colour, those nearest the extremities being of a lunular form, and are indented, terminating in an extended tail, and are edged with white. The apex, or crown of the head, is tipped with the same red colour which encircles the shoulders, and terminates the abdomen the space of about five rings."

Of No. 2. he speaks thus: "The form of the wings resembles the preceding insects. They are beautifully variegated with black and yellow; the inferior ones terminate in a tail, and, according to the character of the section, are adorned with an eye of a yellowish red colour, encircled with blue, which is situated at the edge, nearest the extremity of the abdomen. This is the largest, and one of the most beautiful insects England produces. The caterpillar is large and smooth, of a bright green colour, with transversal bands, of a deep glossy purple upon every ring, which bands are enriched with yellow spots; it feeds on wild fennel and other umbelliferous plants; changes into the chrysalis in July, assumes the winged state in August, and frequents meadows. It sometimes appears in May."

And of No. 3. we have this account: "The peacock, or peacock's eye, is easily known by the peacock's eyes which it bears above, four in number, one upon each wing, which has given it the name it has. Its wings, very angular, are black underneath; above they are of a reddish dun colour. The upper ones have on their superior edge two black oblong spots, with a yellow one between the two. At their extremity is found the eye, large, reddish in the middle, surrounded with a yellow circle, accompanied by a small portion of blue towards the exterior side. On that same side, following the direction of the margin, there are five or six white spots, set in order. The inferior wings are browner, and have each a large eye of a very dark blue in the middle, surrounded by an ash-colour circle. The caterpillar of this butterfly is of a deep black, dotted with a little white."

We cannot conclude this article without noticing some very singular species; of which Mr Reaumur has given an account, and which deserve particular regard.

One species of these he has called the bundle of dry leaves. This, when it is in a state of rest, has wholly the appearance of a little cluster of the decayed leaves, of some herb. The position and colour of its wings greatly favour this resemblance, and they have very large ribs: wholly like those of the leaves of plants, and are indented in the same manner at their edges as the leaves of many plants are. This seems to point out the care of nature for the animal, and frequently may preserve it from birds, &c.

The skull butterfly is another singular species, so called from its head resembling in some degree a death's head or human skull. This very remarkable appearance is terrible to many people; but it has another yet greater singularity attending it, which is, that, when frighted, it has a mournful and harsh voice.

This appeared the more surprising to Mr Reaumur, as no other known butterfly had any the least voice at all; and he was not ready of belief that it was a real voice, but suspected the noise, like that of the cicadae, to be owing to the attrition of some part of the body; and, in fine, he, by great pains, discovered that this noise was not truly vocal, but was made by a hard and brisk rubbing of the trunk against two other hard bodies between which it is placed.

Another butterfly there is, so small that it might be mistaken for a small fly. This is certainly the extreme in degree of size of all the known butterflies, and cannot but have been proportionably small in the state of a caterpillar and chrysalis: this creature spends its whole life in all the three stages of caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly, on the leaf of the celandine. It lives on the under side of the leaf; and though in the caterpillar state it feeds on it, yet it does no damage. It does not eat the substance of the leaf, but draws from it only a fine juice, which is soon repaired again, without occasioning any change in the appearance of the leaf. This species is very short-lived; and passes through its three states in so short a time, that there are frequently ten generations of it in one year; whereas, in all the other butterflies, two generations in the year are all that are to be had. These two generations are sufficient to make a prodigious increase: in a large garden, if there are twenty caterpillars in spring, these may be overlooked, and there may be easily concluded to be none there, even on a narrow search; but if these twenty caterpillars afterwards become twenty butterflies, ten of which are male and ten female, and each female lay the same number of eggs that the common silk-worm does, that is, four hundred; if all the caterpillars hatched of these become butterflies, and these lay eggs in the same proportion, which remain the winter, and come to be hatched in the succeeding spring; then from these twenty, in only one year, you will have eight hundred thousand; and if we add to this the increase of these in a succeeding year, the account must appear terrible, and such as no art could guard against. The great Ruler of the world has put so many hindrances in the way of this over-abundant production, that it is very rare such years of destruction happen. Some such have happened, however; and much mischief has been dreaded from them, not only from their eating all the herbage, but from themselves being eaten with herbs in salads and otherwise: but experiments have proven this to be an erroneous opinion, and they are found to be innocent, and eatable as snails or oysters.