Learning MySQL

Colophon

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects.

The type of butterfly on the cover of Learning MySQL is the blue spotted crow (euploea midamus). One of more than 15,000 species of butterfly, this member of the brush-footed family Nymphalidae (which also is home to the Monarch) is native to the Orient and can be found in a region that spreads from Afghanistan to Australia. As its name suggests, the crow is distinguished by its blue tint, as well as a series of white spots that line the hind edge of its large wings.

In the course of their lives, butterflies go through four development stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Butterfly eggs, ovate or spherical in shape, are attached to leaves by a powerful, quickly hardening glue until they hatch. In the larval stage, butterflies are commonly referred to as caterpillars, and their bodies are divided into many small segments, each possessing up to four pairs of legs. Caterpillars have insatiable appetites, feeding practically nonstop on plant matter and molting approximately four or five times before becoming pupae. At this third phase, the caterpillar becomes a chrysalis, typically cleaving to the underside of a leaf. The chrysalis then consumes foodstuffs that enable it to develop its wing structures and make the metamorphosis into ...