16 
B Y THE WA YSIDE 
the larva lets go with the front legs and hangs 
suspended, the fore part curled so that it looks 
like the capital letter J. The discomforts of 
being thus hung up by the heels are not felt 
by the Monarch; indeed the rush of blood to 
the head is the thing to be desired. For the 
tissues of the organs are all broken down into 
a creamy mass in order to be in a condition to 
be worked over into the adult organs. This 
gravitates toward the head, making this end 
the larger. Now the skin grows dingy. But 
here the life story may end suddenly. Some¬ 
times insect enemies like the ichneumons, lay 
their eggs in the helpless larvae; if they ha\e 
in ours, the body juices will now run out 
through the pierced skin, as it hangs suspend¬ 
ed. But if it has been successful in escaping 
all enemies up to this point, the preliminary 
stage will occupy a day. Then if you wish to 
see what follows you must keep your eyes 
fastened upon the creature, eten if you must 
forego sleeping and eating. I have sometimes 
thought that the creature maliciously selected 
meal times and the night hours for its meta¬ 
morphoses; for certain parts I have always 
missed. Without warning the dingy old skin 
splits, and is wriggled off. There is now a 
strange green, shapeless, soft-skinned, creature, 
broadest below, yet with some indications of 
segmentation at the top. It is gently wrig¬ 
gling as if to get itself fitted into its new coat. 
This rapidly hardens, but the body form has 
changed, the largest end being now the upper. 
The crowning wonder comes a little later when 
gold and black spots appear to set off the beau¬ 
tiful green of the chrysalis. 
Hung up by the slender tough silken cord, in 
its hard case, our pupa remains for two weeks. 
It is well protected, for I have sent them some 
distance by mail packed in cotton. A fort¬ 
night is a short time in which to complete this 
wonderful metamorphosis from pupa to adult 
insect, for it means new internal anatomy to 
suit the new life, complicated appendages and 
great wings. No wonder the caterpillar must 
eat so much to get material for the building. 
Near the end of the period, the changes be¬ 
come apparent from the outside. The beauti¬ 
ful green opaque shell becomes thin and trans- 
parant, and thru it shows the gorgeous brown 
and black and white of the newly formed 
wings. Then if you keep your eyes open, and 
your ears closed to everything else, you may, 
one day, hear a faint rustling. I say “may” 
for I have carried a chrysalis about with me 
and then failed to hear and see the newly 
emerging butterfly. It is limp and inactive at 
first, but its colors the fairly alive. It hangs 
helpless with wings down, clutching tightly its 
old case. Its wings, like rolls of rich brown 
velvet with black lines and white spots, rapid¬ 
ly expand and dry; and soon the insect can 
poise itself gracefully and daintily, a very 
Monarch indeed among the butterflies. 
In a few hours it shows a decided inclination 
to escape its captors and see something of the 
world. It is now near the end of summer and 
a long journey is ahead of it. I he instinct 
to migrate, inherited through long generations 
and saved by natural selection, is strong in 
the individual This climate is too severe for 
so delicate a creature; food is becoming scarce 
and it is not in a condition to hibernate. If 
free, the Monarchs congregate in large num¬ 
bers and migrate to the south like the birds. 
Their power of wing is marvelous. I have 
found them in numbers on an island a mile 
from shore. They go over long stretches of 
land and water, and return to the north in the 
summer. Their eggs are laid, one at a time, 
on the various species of the milkweed, as the 
female flits from plant to plant. 
This butterfly, unlike so many moths, takes 
food in the adult stage. It has a long slender 
black proboscis, coiled up like a watch spring 
under the head when not in use. If sweetened 
water be placed in the cage where it is confin¬ 
ed, it will daintily uncoil its tube and suck 
up the liquid. Out of doors, it can sip the 
honey from the deep cups of the flowers. 
That the Milkweed Butterfly has been suc- 
cessful as a species, in spite of'many enemies, 
is attested by its great numbers. It is one of 
the most common, in spite of its large size 
and conspicuous coloration. It can be seen 
any day, in the summer in fields and roadsides. 
Curiously enough', its success in the struggle 
for existence is attested in another way, a 
point of great interest to the biologist. The 
Viceroy Butterfly, a smaller and rarer form, 
has by a long process of natural selection tak¬ 
en on the same colors and almost identical 
markings. And so it has deceived its enemies 
and gained immunity, a wonderful example of 
what scientists called mimicry. 
Ruth Marshall. 
Appleton, Wis. 
