320 



Handbook of Nature-Study 



THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY 

 Teacher's Story 



T IS a great advantage to an insect to have the 

 bird problem eliminated, and the monarch 

 butterfly enjoys this advantage to the utmost. 

 Its method of flight proclaims it, for it drifts 

 about in a lazy, leisurely manner, its glowing 

 red making it like a gleaming jewel in the air, a 

 very different flight indeed from the zigzag 

 dodging movements of other butterflies. The 

 monarch has an interesting race history. It is 

 a native of tropic America, and has probably 



learned through some race instinct, that by following its food plant north 



with the opening season, it gains immunity from special enemies other 



than birds, which attack it in some stage in its native haunts. Each 



mother butterfly follows the spring northward as it advances, as far as she 



finds the milkweed sprouted. 



There she deposits her eggs, 



from which hatch individuals 



which carry on the migration 



as far to the north as possible. 



It usually arrives in New York 



State early in July. As 



cold weather approaches, the 



monarchs often gather in large 



flocks and move back to the 



South. How they find their 



way we cannot understand, 



since there are among them 



none of the individuals which 



pressed northward early in the 



season. 



The very brilliant copper- 

 red color of the upper sides of 



the wings of the monarch is 



made even more brilliant by 



the contrasting black markings 



which outline the veins and 



border the wings, and also 



cover the tips of the front wings 



with a triangular patch; this 



latter seems to be an especially | 



planned background for show- 

 ing off the pale orange and 



white dots set within it. There 



are white dots set, two pairs in two rows, between each two veins 



in the ^ black margin of the wings; and the fringe at the edge of 



the wings shows corresponding white markings. The hind wings 



and the front portions of the front wings have, on their lower sides, a 



ground color of pale yellow, which makes the insect less conspicuous when 



it alights and folds its wings above its back, upper surfaces together. 



The monarch butterfly. 



