36 THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA 



The region now within the boundaries of the State of Okla- 

 homa, in spite of the ruthless slaughter of many innocent victims 

 in the past, still teems with animal life, while its geographical sit- 

 uation gives peculiar variety to its flora. One point should be im- 

 pressed upon the minds of youthful explorers and that is, there 

 should be no indiscriminate, useless, or wanton destruction of either 

 plants or animals. 



Early autumn ushers in a great variety of butterflies, moths, 

 beetles, and other interesting Arthropoda. The honey bee at this 

 season will usual'y be seen busily engaged on its favorite flower, 

 the golden rod. The most common and easily captured of the 

 Imtterflies are the great monarchs, interrogation, silver-spot, 

 clouded sulphur, cabbage, and the beautiful swallow tail. The 

 great monarchs may be found at any time from April until the last 

 of October. They never seem to be in a hurry. Slowly descend- 

 ing or advancing, they describe a variety of graceful curves and 

 undulations and finally hang motionless so long from some flower, 

 preferably one of the Labiates, that we may easily pick them up 

 with our fingers. During the high winds or light rains they will 

 be noticed gaily sporting about heading against the wind and it 

 is due to this characteristic that Mr. Moffatt has suggested a very 

 appropriate name for it, "The Storm King." The interrogation 

 flitting about from one moist spot of earth to another is easily 

 recognized, but when resting, it folds its wings over its back and re- 

 sembles the surrondings so closely that only a sharp eye is able to 

 distinguish it. 



Caterpillars of these species are numerous and are ea-sily 

 located. The monarch caterpiller is usually found on the milk- 

 weed, the swallowtail on parsley and wild carrot, even the garden 

 carrot. The eggs are always laid on the Umbellifera, so if 

 we find eggs of Asterias on an unfamiliar plant we may 

 safely conclude it belongs to the parsley family. The interrogation 

 caterpillar makes its home on the elm tree or hop vine ; the sul- 

 phur hovers about Cassia, alfalfa or clover, so if we desire speci- 

 mens of that family we go to the above named plants. The cab- 

 bage as its name signifies had made itself notorious on account of 

 the damage done, and we must seek it in its favorite haunt, "the 

 cabbage patch." 



The "wooly bear" gives equal attention to the mulberry or wal- 

 nut leaves and garden plants. Others, for instance, the "spinxes" 

 prefer the tomato plant. A few inches of moist earth are indis- 

 pensible as many complete their life cycle in the ground. 



