CHAPTER VII 



THE BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS: LEPIDOPTERA 



And what's a butterfly? At best 

 He's but a caterpillar drest. 



John Gay 



The Monarch Butterfly. One of the commonest and best 

 known of our butterflies is the monarch, or milkweed, but- 

 terfly (Dan'aus ar chip' 'pus ; see illustration facing page 58). 

 It is a tawny-colored species expanding about ten centi- 

 meters (four inches). The wings have black veins, and the 

 margins are black with white spots. The colors are due to 

 the presence of tiny scales, which cover the surface regularly 

 and overlap like the shingles on a roof. Besides serving for 

 the display of the colors, the scales also strengthen the 

 wings. The scales are in origin modified hairs, like those 

 which cover the rest of the body. The same mouth parts 

 that were described for the grasshopper are present here 

 also. They have become elongated and modified to form a 

 tube which is coiled beneath the head when the butterfly is 

 not feeding. This proboscis is formed from the lengthening 

 and union of the maxillae. The mandibles are so small as to 

 be hardly visible. The anterior legs are so much reduced in 

 size that they cannot be used for walking, and the butterfly is 

 therefore practically four-legged . This is not true of all butter- 

 flies, for in many of them the front legs are well developed. 



Practically all the butterflies living in the northern part 



of the United States spend the winter as inactive adults 



or as larvae or pupae. But the monarch butterfly is not 



present in the North in any stage during the winter. It 



54 



