SOME BUTTERFLY FRIENDS 



monarch. He has neither the mon- 

 arch's vigor of flight nor his means of 

 defence from predatory birds, but his 

 safety so the students tell us lies 

 in looking so much like his superior 

 that he also is let alone. The students 

 go on to say that his is a good example 

 of the imitative power of insects where- 

 by they escape destruction by seeming 

 to the casual eye to be something else. 



The viceroy, which is a Basilarchia 

 disippus, thus looks not the least like 

 other members of his family, but con- 

 sciously mimics the coloring of the 

 monarch for safety. Thus many tropi- 

 cal beetles contrive to look like wasps 

 that they may not be molested, and 

 some insects look like brown leaves and 

 others like green ones. 



But do they contrive, imitate, mimic? 

 It is no doubt true that because of the 

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