September 30, 2008
The pupae of butterflies are especially interesting, as illustrating the extreme reduction of the
The pupae of butterflies are especially interesting, as illustrating the extreme reduction of the silken cocoon. The pupa of a "swallowtail" (Papilionid) or a "white" (Pierid) butterfly (fig. 23) may be found attached to a twig of its food-plant or to a wall, in an upright position, its tail fastened to a pad of silk and a slender silken girdle encircling its thorax. The pupa of a "Tortoiseshell" or "Admiral" (Nymphalid) butterfly hangs head downwards from a twig, supported only by the tail-pad of silk, which, useless as a shelter, serves only for attachment. The pupa is fastened to this pad by a spiny hook or process, the _cremaster_ (fig. 23 _cr_), on the last abdominal segment. The cremaster is a characteristic structure in the pupa of a moth or butterfly. C.V. Riley (1880) and W. Hatchett-Jackson (1890) have shown that it corresponds with a spiny area, the suranal plate, which lies above the opening of the caterpillar"s intestine. The means by which the suspended pupa of a nymphalid butterfly attaches its cremaster to the silken pad which the larva has spun in preparation for pupation, is worthy of brief attention. The caterpillar, hanging head downwards, is attached to the silken pad by its hindmost pair of pro-legs or claspers and by the suranal plate, and the cuticle is slowly worked off from before backwards, so as to expose the pupa. Were the process of moulting to be simply completed while the bed bug hangs by the claspers, the pupa would of course fall to the ground. But there is enough adhesion between the pupal and larval cuticles at the hinder end of the body, especially by means of the everted lining of the hind-gut, for the pupa to be supported while it jerks its cremaster out of the larval cuticle and works it into the meshes of the silken pad. The moult is thus completed and the pupa hangs securely all the time. In the numerous cases where the pupa is enclosed in a cocoon, the cremaster serves to fix the pupa to the surrounding silk. Chapman (1893) has drawn attention to the fact that among the more highly organised moths the pupa remains in the cocoon, the emergence being entirely left to the imago, while the pupae of the more primitive moths work their way partly out of the cocoon before the final moult begins. In the latter case, the cremaster is anchored by a strand of silk which allows a certain degree of emergence, and the pupa has rows of spines on its abdominal segments, of which a greater number retain the power of mutual motion than in those pupae which do not come out of their cocoons.