THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE VICEROY. 



(Basilarchia archippus.) 



REST METCALF. 



UGH! The ugly worm! Crush it! 

 Wait a moment, listen, while I 

 tell you a more excellent way. 

 Notice on what your worm is 

 feeding; take a branch of it home and 

 place it in a bottle of water with the 

 worm on it; then place the bottle with 

 its contents in a large box, fastening a 

 wire securely over the box, to prevent 

 the escape; then watch your worm. Per 

 haps your worm will be the one so often 

 found on the milkweed (asclepras) with 

 black and yellow stripes around his 

 body, two little horns in front on his 

 head and one at the tail. If you keep 

 him well supplied with fresh leaves, in 

 a short time he will eat all he wishes 

 and then, and not until then, will he 

 leave the plant on which he is feeding 

 and travel many a longjourney up and 

 down and all around the box, until you 

 may imagine he has gone crazy from 

 his confinement; but that is not the case, 

 as you will soon see. When he finds 

 just the right place, he will remain quite 

 still to all appearances, but really he is 

 very busy with his bobbin of silk and 

 glue bottle weaving a small silken mat 

 and fastening it very securely to the 

 top of the box, and the next thing you 

 will see him hanging by his tail from 

 this mat, with his head recurved. Watch 

 him and you will notice that he makes 

 little jerky motions. For about twenty- 

 four hours he remains in that same po 

 sition, when suddenly he drops down 

 his head so that he hangs straight down; 

 now don't leave him for a moment, for 

 very soon after taking that position, 

 his black and yellow striped coat be 

 gins to split open, right between those 

 two little black horns on the head, as 

 evenly as though cut with a sharp knife 

 and a pale green globular object comes 

 into sight. With a few contortions of the 

 body the little fellow pushes up his old 

 coat, folding each stripe, just as Jap 

 anese lanterns fold up, then with a dex 

 terous movement he fastens the end of 

 his beautiful green chrysalis to the mat, 

 dropping his old clothes, so closely 



compacted together that you would 

 hardly recognize them. Now for two 

 hours he exercises by little shrugs until 

 the beautiful green chrysalis hangs com 

 plete, with gold band and pure gold 

 spots, the most beautiful chrysalis I 

 ever saw. Everyone exclaims, "How 

 beautiful!" and wonders how an ugly 

 worm could so transform itself into a 

 thing of beauty, 



For ten days we can see no change in 

 the looks of this chrysalis; then it grows 

 darker and darker until you can dis 

 tinguish the veins on the wings of the 

 future butterfly. Then this little fel 

 low, tired of his close quarters, opens 

 the door of his beautiful chrysalis and 

 creeps out, clinging fast to the empty 

 nest. O, what tiny wings! But as you 

 watch they dry outand lengthen to three 

 times their first size and you behold the 

 beautiful large Viceroy orange - red 

 wings with black lines along the nerv- 

 ures and a row of white spots along 

 the outer margin, his black body beau 

 tifully spotted with white. 



Or perhaps you may find, on the car 

 rots in your garden, a worm with black 

 and green stripes around his body, the 

 black stripe being decorated with yel 

 low spots. He will spin a longsilken mat 

 the length of his body and to that mat 

 fasten a swing to hang around his body, 

 so that by usinga little glue at the end of 

 his body the swing will hold his chrys 

 alis in place. This chrysalis is not as 

 beautiful as the Viceroy, but very in 

 teresting in its odd shape and in its de 

 velopment and will well repay all the 

 interest taken in it. Perhaps you may 

 be surprised by not seeing a beautiful 

 butterfly emerge from your chrysalis, 

 but instead an Ichneumon fly, for 

 often the Ichneumon fly deposits her 

 egg in the caterpillar's back, and he 

 can not say her nay; after he is nicely 

 settled in his chrysalis this egg hatches 

 and develops rapidly, needing so much 

 food that nothing is left of the poor 

 caterpillar or worm, but the fly prospers 

 and soon comes forth full-grown, from 



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