58 



ELEMENTARY STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE 



through what we are wont to call mimicry. The defini- 

 tion of this term, a word not in all respects expressing 

 the intended meaning, can probably be best given in 

 illustrations. 



We are all familiar with that old-fashioned brown 

 butterfly to be seen lazily making its way over the 

 meadows in the late summer days ; and sometimes in the 



Fio. 49. Caterpillar about to pupate, and chrys- 

 alis of the monarch butterfly. Photographed 

 from life. 



autumn great strings of them may be seen moving south- 

 ward, or clusters of them hanging to the branches of a 

 tree in such numbers as 1 to obscure the color of the leaves. 

 This is the monarch <>r milkweed butterfly, 1 to be found 

 wherever the milkweed grows. 



From its careful, easy manner of flight in exposed 

 places, this milkweed butterfly evidently takes little 

 thought of predatory birds, and the reason is that in- 

 sectivorous birds care nothing for it. If perchance a 

 bird, a young inexperienced fledgling, pounces upon 

 one of these milkweed butterflies, it soon lets go, be- 



l Anosia plexippus. 



