Creeping caterpillar’s transformation illustrates metamorphosis

During the summer when I was between the fifth and sixth grades, our neighbor and friend, Bobby, taught my sister and me about butterflies. Bobby was among the last unfortunate children to suffer with polio before we all lined up at school to be injected with the Salk vaccine. He walked with a limp and ran with a limp, but we would watch him with his butterfly net, stalking and catching specimens for his impressive collection.

Across the lane from our homes was an abandoned potato field that in summer was covered with weeds and wildflowers. This was Bobby’s hunting ground.

Because we could run faster than Bobby, my sister and I became his assistants that summer. He taught us to identify by name these intriguing insects — tiger swallowtails, painted ladies, buckeyes, red admirals — knowledge that has managed to stick in my head despite the fact that I addressed our church’s organist by the wrong name…