"No dear, but to watch them as they fly through the sunshine,
you would never think they have a serious thought. They do though, and
they have an important duty to perform. After the love-making and the
honeymoon, the female butterfly starts laying her eggs, far and near, on
the leaves of the plants upon which her baby caterpillars will feed. There
are no baby butterflies, only baby caterpillars and the mother butterfly
never lives to see her babies.
"The life of the butterfly, step by step, is first the egg, second the
caterpillar, third the chrysalis and fourth, or last change, the full-grown
butterfly. In our warm Florida climate the eggs hatch quickly into fat
caterpillars you so often see in our garden.
"Our first guest, the giant swallowtail, lays her eggs on the leaves
of orange and grapefruit trees. The grove men call the caterpillar of the
butterfly, the orange puppy.
"Caterpillars use lots of tricks to fool their enemies, especially birds,
who like to eat them. The caterpillar of the tiger swallowtail, found in the
Everglades, has a fierce look. Rings on the body just above the head are
swollen and here are two large round marks that look like eyes. At rest, he
draws in his real head, throws up the front part of his body, so that