THE LIFE STORY OF THE PAINTED 

 LADY BUTTERFLY 



By JOHN J. WARD 



Author of "Life Histories of Familiar Plants," "Some Nature Biographies," etc. 

 Illustrated from Original Photographs by the Author 



RARELY can a butterfly be said to 

 ^ be cosmopolitan, but the Painted 

 Lady almost achieves that distinc- 

 tion, for it is found (and often abundantly) 

 in almost every country in the world 

 excepting, perhaps, the Arctic regions and 

 South America. 

 Although the in- 

 sect frequently 

 occurs in large 

 numbers, yet the 

 irregularity of its 

 appearance is 

 striking. S o m e- 

 times, for several 

 consecutive years, 

 the butterfly col- 

 lector diligently 

 searches in vain 

 for specimens; 

 then some day 

 unexpectedly, as 

 he saunters along, 

 he is overjoyed at 

 the sight of one of 

 these handsome 

 insects on the wing. 

 With net in hand 

 he wildly pursues 

 it, and the butter- 

 fly eventually 

 alights in a meadow 

 near by where 

 thistle or clover 

 blooms abound. 

 Imagine, though, 

 the astonishment 



of the collector when, after carefully ap- 

 proaching the spot, he finds resting on 

 nearly every flower a Painted Lady 

 Butterfly — a multitude of them before his 

 eyes. Such an incident has happened to 



A MAGNIFIED VIEW OF SOME OF THE 

 BUTTERFLY'S EGGS. 



various entomologists in nearly every 

 corner of the earth. Where the insects 

 come from so suddenly after, perhaps, 

 years of absence, has long been a puzzle. 

 However, the fact that these insects 

 migrate is now fairly well established ; and 

 this habit of migra- 

 tion, leading small 

 or large groups to 

 take advantage of 

 suitable winds for 

 the journey, prob- 

 ably accounts for 

 the cosmopolitan 

 distribution of the 

 species, and at 

 tlie same time for 

 its numerical 

 strength, for the 

 race must natur- 

 ally benefit by dis- 

 persal of its super- 

 fluous numbers to 

 fields and pastures 

 new. 



Having now ac- 

 counted for the 

 sudden and extra- 

 ordinary appear- 

 ance of the butter- 

 fly, we may pro- 

 ceed to consider 

 the details in the 

 life history of an 

 indi\'idual. 



It was in the 

 early morning of 

 the 8th of June — the year need not con- 

 cern us — when one of these butterflies 

 suddenly put in an appearance on the 

 English coast at Folkestone and selected 

 its pitch of land — for an attachment to a 



778 



