218 NA TURE STUD Y RE VIE W [9 :7— Oct. , 1913 



Then almost without warning, they launched off into the air as 

 though flying had always been their mode of traveling. I raised 

 about twenty-five butterflies that fall in this way but it was not 

 until the following summer that I found the first stage, the egg. I 

 noticed one day a large Monarch floating from one milkweed plant 

 to another, not stopping for the honey in the flowers but seeming 

 to rest only an instant On the leaves, with its abdomen curved 

 around and pressed against the surface. I guessed immediately 

 that she was laying eggs but it needed a very close inspection to 

 prove this,'as the rather sharp, cartridge-shaped egg was too tiny to 



Fig. II. Pupa of Monarch Phoio By J. C. Evans 



be noticed at once. It was pure white but later turned to a dull 

 yellowish. The flrst simimer the Monarchs were quite plentiful 

 but the following year I saw very few and found only two larvae 

 the whole year, but now the nymph butterflies were abundant and 

 their larvae covered the nettles near the house. I raised these as 

 I had the Monarchs, and often five or six were flying about the 

 room. At the same time I was keeping some black swallow-tail 

 larvae that had been found on some wild parsley and although 

 many of these pupated before the nymphs, none of them emerged 

 that fall while all the nymphs did. On September fourth, I carried 



