The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-07-25
TEE MONARCH AND THE VICE.
 ROY.

ROY.
 1 In our tramp through the open fields at this season, we shall see two butter flies which are apt to attract our at- tention, because, although differing con- siderably in size, they resemble each other remarkably in form, color and markings. The larger of the two is The
 Monarch, large butterfly, measuring
 about three and half inches across it's outspread wings. The latter are bright
 reddish brown, strongly yeined with
 black, and have broad margins of black relieved by double row of white spots. The smaller butterfly, which is known as the Viceroy, has much the same general appearance, but across it's hind wings there is a transverse band of
 black which is not seen in the Monarch.
 One of the peculiarities of the Mon arch butterfly is that 1t has an odor, and probably taste so disagreeable to
 birds that the latter will not eat it.
 And here lies the secret of the Viceroy's Iclose resemblance to it. The protection
 afforded the Monarch by it's disagree | those specimens among the yfceroys which looked sufficiently like Monarchs
 to be mistaken for them, or to be
 summed by the birds as doubtful"
 In the struggle for existence this inl- immunity from the attack of a power full enemy proved so great an advan- | tage to the favored few among the Viceroys. that. in the course of ages, | their progeny became more numerous than that of the normally colored I specimens, until to-day all Viceroys re- semble Monarchs, and the entire spe- cies is immune by reason of this re- semblance. t
 Much as they resemble one another in appearance, the fife histories of the monarch and the rViceroy are quite
 different. The former insect begins life as a pale-green, conical egg, which it's I mother lays upon a milkweed leaf. The 1 caterpillar which soon matches. is a
 bright yellow insect, banded with shin- l ing black bands, and with pair of
 black, threadlike appendages before and behind. The little caterpillar loses
 no time in beginning to feed on the juicy leaves of the food plant on which it
 was matched, and 1t quickly grows so fbig that it's skin will not hold it. The larva soon get over this difficulty by I shedding its old skin and appearing in a new one which has been forming un- derneath, and after resting for while to allow the new and tender skin to be-
 come tougher, the insect begins to feed and continues until 1t is time to shed it's lei. tho oes ts, called, is repeated two or three times
 more during the next month, and then after week or ten days, during which l the caterpillar eats more ravenously tthan ever, it reaches it's full growth and its appetite suddenly fails it. It now becomes restless, and wanders about as 1 though looking for something, as indeed 1 it is; 1t is looking for safe and quiet spot in which to pass the helpless pupal stage of it's existence, upon which 1t is now ready to enter. Sometimes it finds a sheltered place beneath one of the milkweed leaves; at other times 1t is obliged to travel farther. Having found the right spot, it weaves a little silken mat, into which it hooks the claws with which it's hind feet are provided Then l u lHlS SO WILL Us OItlCI lCCl gnu
 head downward. with its head turned
 up so that it's suspended body looks like
 a hook. It hangs thus for hours, and then the skin splits down the back once more, and as it Is worked off by the
 wriggling movements of the insect,
 there is revealed curious litle crea- ture, without definite form and neither chrysalis nor caterpillar. Quickly, how
 ever, it changes. and becomes green
 chrysalis with gold and black spots,
 hanging by a slender connection to the
 sillzen web above it. Thus it remains for perhaps two weeks when the shell of the chysalis suddenly splits and out
 comes butterfly, with limp and
 crumpled wings begin to grow and
 straighten out even as you watch them,
 until they reach their full length and breadth. In the meantime the butter fly is clinging somewhat feebly to the empty chrysalis case, but not it will probably walk to the top of the leaf or
 other support, where it will rest until it's wings become hard enough and lstrong enough to enable 1t to fly.
 If no accident happen to it, the newly~developed Monarch may have a
 very eventful life. It is migratory butterfly, and being very strong on the
 wing, may travel hundreds, if not T thousands, of miles before it lays its leggs and dies. If it belongs to a late brood, it will, in the fall, join thousands of it's kind, which will journey to the
 south in long struggling flocks, which sometimes alight upon dead trees in such numbers as to make the branches appear to blossom. These will never
 come back again, but in the spring the eggs which they laid will hatch, and
 their children will come north to make
 our summer meadows bright.
 The almost spherical egg of the Vice. roy is laid at the tip of a leaf of an oak,
 birch, willow or linden tree. When the tiny caterpillar is matched, its first act
 is to eat up the shell of the egg from
 which it has just emerged. This is sup- posed to be a bit of woodcraft intended to destroy evidence of it's presence
 which. might be only too useful to it's
 enemies. If the begins to eat the leaf it