THE MENTOR 1915.08.02, No. 88,
Butterflies

The Butterfly of Dreams

“You must not look upon butterflies as trivial,” said
Laleham. “The study of much smaller things has
made modern science; and a butterfly may well lead you
to the ends of the earth—and even lose you among the
stars. You never know where it may take you. There
is no hunting more full of exciting possibilities. If you
dare follow a butterfly, you dare go anywhere; and no
quarry will lead you into stranger places, or into such
unexpected adventures.”

He had never forgotten the day when that spell of
exquisite silence and dappled sunshine—the whole
woodland with its finger on its lip—had suddenly become
embodied in a tiny shape of colored velvet wings that came
floating zig-zag up the dingle, swift as light, aery as a perfume,
soft and silent as the figured carpet in some Eastern
palace. With what awe he watched it, as at length it
settled near him on a sunlit weed; with what a luxury of
observation his eyes noted its sumptuous, unearthly markings,
and what an image of wonder and exquisite mystery
it there and forever left on his mind. In a moment it was
up and away upon its uncharted travel through the wood.
Instinctively he ran in pursuit. But it was too late. He
had lost his first butterfly.

For him, from that moment, all the beauty of the
world, and the mystery and the elusiveness of it,
were symbolized in a butterfly. From that moment it
seemed to him that the success of life was—the catching of
a certain butterfly.

RICHARD LE GALLIENNE.

MENTOR GRAVURES

SPRING BUTTERFLIES

AMERICAN FRITILLARIES

ADMIRALS

A GROUP OF SWALLOWTAILS

MENTOR GRAVURES

A GROUP OF VERY COMMON BUTTERFLIES

A SWALLOWTAIL AND GROUP OF SKIPPERS

BUTTERFLIES

By DR. W. J. HOLLAND

Copyright The Century Co.

NORTH AMERICAN BUTTERFLIES

Above left—Gray Hairstreak. Above right—American
Copper. Center—The Banded Purple

THE MENTOR · DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL HISTORY

AUGUST 2, 1915

The earliest memories of my childhood cluster about a little manse
in the countryside. In winter, when the drifts were deep and the
house was snowbound, a usual recreation was to look at the cabinets
containing shells collected in Jamaica by my father during his residence
as a missionary on that island. I preferred, however, to feast my eyes on
the contents of certain flat boxes of Jamaica cedar, in which many of the
gorgeous moths and butterflies, as well as other insects, of that sunny
island were displayed.

Fig. 1

MAGNIFIED
SCALES OF
BUTTERFLIES

1, 2, ordinary
scales. 3-5, androconia,
or
scales from
wings of male
butterflies

When spring and summer came I was very busy gathering plants,
pressing them for my little herbarium, and collecting shells which I found
in the woodlands and when wading the streams. Among insects the
beetles and butterflies pleased me most. Later my home was in North
Carolina, whither the family removed from central Ohio when I was a
child of ten. Here the same process went on, with the added pleasure of
being near a library, in which, among other books, was a copy of Wilson
and Bonaparte’s “American Ornithology,” many of the plates in which
I copied, and Say’s work on “American Entomology.” The collection of
plants and insects grew apace, and I was allowed to begin to stuff and
mount birds.

Fig. 2

WING SCALES

Greatly magnified
scales of
Cabbage butterfly

In 1863 I came north, and for ten years my life was passed in college
and professional schools, where I had little time to study ornithology and
entomology. But the love of living things survived, and when, at last
settled in active professional life, I began to feel the need of some pursuit
which would furnish a physical as well as intellectual
recreation, I reverted to the study of
insects. This took me into the woods and fields.

Having begun to collect insects, I made up
my mind that I must learn to know all about
them. I sought for books on the subject. There
were none of any value in the libraries about
me. I then began to buy books, and have
continued, until today I possess a collection of
works upon entomology which is said to be the
largest in private hands in America. I began
to seek information from other students of the
subject. The circle of my correspondence has grown until it covers many
lands. One of my correspondents, the late W. H. Edwards of Coalburg,
West Virginia, wrote to me that he wished to publish the third volume of
his magnificent work, “The Butterflies of North America,” and therefore
contemplated offering his collection to the British Museum in order to
obtain the necessary funds. I replied to him that I would undertake to
defray the expense of bringing out the third volume of his work, provided
he would turn over the collection to me, so that it might be incorporated
with my own. He accepted my offer, and I thus saved for
America its most important collection of butterflies. I bought many
other collections from time to time. I traveled widely, always collecting,
and I employed men to collect
for me in foreign lands. Today
my collection is one of the
largest in existence, containing
tens of thousands of species
and hundreds of thousands of
specimens.

Fig. 3

EGG OF THE VICEROY

Basilarchia disippus

Magnified 30 diameters

Fig. 4

EGG OF THE MONARCH

Anosia plexippus

Magnified 30 diameters

Fig. 5

THE MONARCH FROM LARVÆ TO CHRYSALIS

a, before shedding skin. b, in act of shedding skin.
c, trying to catch hold of silk button

THE BUTTERFLY BOOK

To learn what I have involved
a large outlay of money and much
patient study. When, therefore,
it was suggested to me to prepare
a comprehensive book on the butterflies
of the United States and
Canada I resolved to undertake
the task; if for no other reason,
to spare the rising generation of
young Americans from the expense
and trouble to which I had been
subjected in trying to master the
subject. I resolved to illustrate
the book profusely, using so far as possible the types or identical specimens
on which Edwards and others had founded their descriptions. The result
was “The Butterfly Book,” and I am now following that up with a small
manual entitled “The Butterfly Guide.” Both of these works are illustrated
with colored figures. With these books the boys and girls of America
are no longer compelled to wade, as I did, through piles of books and
pamphlets in order to get the information they desire.

THE VALUE OF THE STUDY OF BUTTERFLIES

I feel that a brief recital of the way in which I came to be a student
of this delightful subject may interest others, and the story may encourage
some of the bright boys of America to take up the study of entomology earnestly.
It is no mean
subject. There was
a time when “bugologists,”
as students
of insect life were
facetiously called,
were classified as a
variety of harmless
cranks; but that day
has passed. The
discovery that some
knowledge of entomology
is necessary
to success in agriculture,
and that
many diseases are
due to infection
brought about by insects, has led the public to recognize the value of
these pursuits from a social and economic standpoint. But enough of this!
Now for the butterflies!

Copyright by The Century Co.

MONARCH BUTTERFLY

Fig. 6

CHRYSALIS OF
THE MONARCH

Fig. 7

CHRYSALIS OF THE PIPEVINE
SWALLOWTAIL

Papilio philenor

Butterflies form one of the two suborders of the order Lepidoptera, or
“scaly-winged insects.” There are many orders of insects. Lord Walsingham
some years ago in an address stated that there were not less than
three million species of insects in this little world of ours. Tens of thousands
of species of Lepidoptera have already been named and classified.
Of butterflies there are twenty thousand species and varieties known, and
of moths there are about five times as many. In the United States we
have about six hundred and fifty species of butterflies, and six thousand
species of moths. New species are still being turned up. Adam did not
give names to all living things. He left his job unfinished, and “the sons
of Adam” since his day have been carrying on the good work, and most
vigorously during the last hundred years. The work of naming and
describing species new to science is going on valorously at the present
time. The last volume of “The Zoölogical Record,” which has just been
issued, shows that in 1913 nearly three thousand strictly scientific books
and papers about insects were published, not to speak of the innumerable
publications of a popular character upon the same subject which were
printed during that year. The same volume shows that no less than
two hundred and twenty-five new species of butterflies alone were
described during the year,
besides a host of so-called
varieties. The new species
were principally from
Africa, Asia, and South
America.

As I have said, butterflies
are “scaly-winged
insects.” Anyone who has
ever taken a moth or butterfly
into his fingers has observed that the creature in its struggles leaves
behind a dustlike substance. Examined under a microscope, this is seen
to be composed of minute scales. Magnified forms of some of these scales
are represented in Figure 1; while in Figure 2 there is shown a little
patch of the scales on the wing of the common Cabbage butterfly, they
being arranged somewhat as the shingles upon the roof of a house, or the
scales upon the sides of a fish.

Fig. 8

CATERPILLAR OF THE MONARCH

Anosia plexippus

Fig. 9

HIBERNACULUM

The little case made by weaving
the sides of a leaf together
and tying it to a twig by
strands of silk. In this the
baby larvæ of the Viceroy
passes the winter

Fig. 10

CATERPILLAR OF THE VICEROY

Fully matured

ORGANIZATION OF BUTTERFLIES

Copyright by The Century Co.

TIGER SWALLOWTAIL

Copyright by The Century Co.

LARQUIN’S ADMIRAL

Butterflies possess a remarkably perfect organization, which includes
the possession of senses and a considerable measure of intelligence,
when we consider the relative lowliness of their station in the
scale of being. Butterflies can
see. They have, as all insects
have, compound eyes, made up
of a number of facets, so that
they can look upward, downward,
forward, and backward
all at the same time. Their
antennæ (or feelers, as they are
sometimes erroneously called)
are most probably
organs for smelling.
Their organs for hearing,
if they have any,
are located upon
their legs, as they are
in the grasshoppers
and other insects.
But butterflies do not
appear to be talkative,
as the grasshoppers and
crickets are; though some
species can make curious
clicking sounds, as some
moths can make squeaking
sounds. That they
can taste is more than
likely. Connected with
the proboscis of butterflies,
through which they
suck the honey of flowers,
there are, no doubt,
gustatory nerves. Their
brains, if the nerve-knot
in the head can be so
called, are not very large;
but their instincts in some
respects are marvelous.
What, for instance, could
be more wonderful than
the manner in which the female butterfly, without having received a
botanical education, infallibly selects the right plant upon which to lay
her eggs, so that her progeny, which she never lives to see, may obtain
proper nourishment? Nobody ever saw a female Swallowtail lay her
eggs upon pine or clover; nobody ever saw a Cabbage butterfly lay
her eggs upon other than a cruciferous plant,—either a cabbage, or
one of its cousins, as plant relationships go.

WONDERS OF TRANSFORMATION

One of the most wonderful things in
the world of life is the manner in which
insects and butterflies, and moths in particular,
undergo transformation, passing
from the egg into the caterpillar, then changing
into the chrysalis, and finally emerging
as the winged insect, fluttering among
the flowers.

The eggs of butterflies are beautiful objects
when examined under a microscope. Some are
shaped like spheres, some like cones, some like spindles, others like turbans.
They are fluted, ribbed, pitted, sculptured, in a multitude of ways. In color
they are as various as the eggs of birds. Figure 3 shows the egg of the Viceroy
(Basilarchia disippus), one of the Admirals belonging to the same group
of insects as those which are figured on one of the plates of “The Butterfly
Book,” reproduced
with
this article.
Figure 4 shows
the egg of
the Monarch,
or common
“Milkweed
butterfly”
(Anosia plexippus),
which
the Viceroy
mimics in the
color and
markings of
its wings.

Fig. 11

WING OF THE
VICEROY

The scales removed
to show the arrangement
of wings

Fig. 12

FRAME OF A FOLDING BUTTERFLY NET

Fig. 13

RING FOR A
BUTTERFLY
NET

Made by soldering
a hoop
of stout brass
wire into the
top of the ferrule
of a fishing
rod

Fig. 14

JAR FOR
KILLING BUTTERFLIES

A sheet of perforated
paper
pasted over
lumps of cyanide
of potash
held in place
at the bottom
by dry sawdust

When the
caterpillar within the egg has reached its full development the top of
the egg splits off, as if a lid had been lifted, and the little creature crawls
out, and generally makes its first meal upon the shell which it has just
vacated, thus whetting its appetite for future banquets, treating the shell
as a hors d’œuvre. The larvæ of most butterflies and moths feed on vegetable
food; but there are some curious species, even of butterflies, which
are carnivorous, the caterpillars of which devour mealy bugs and the larvæ
of ants. The ant-eating species are found in Africa, Asia, and Australia.

THE PRODUCTION OF SILK

Caterpillars have the remarkable power of producing silk. Silk is a
viscous fluid secreted by long glands, which are near the back of the caterpillar,
and communicate with a little, tubelike organ near the jaws, called
the spinneret, through which the silk is voided, instantly becoming, on
contact with the air, a tough elastic fiber. Out of the silk thus secreted the
caterpillars of butterflies spin threads, which they lay along the leaves
and branches to guide themselves from place to place. From the silk many
species weave little shelters, or tents, in which they are protected through the
cold of winter. From the same delicate material
they fashion the little knobs, buttons, and girdles
by which the chrysalids are supported. The
larvæ of butterflies do not spin cocoons: this is
done only by the caterpillars of moths.

Fig. 15

A BUTTERFLY SET AND
MOUNTED FOR DRYING

Caterpillars, as they develop, shed their
skins a number of times. When the little caterpillar
has “grown too big for its breeches” it
anchors itself by a few threads to a fixed
spot, the skin splits along the back, and, being
securely tied in place, remains fast, while the
caterpillar crawls out of it. The larvæ begins
then to feed and grow again, but often treats
the shed skin as it treated the shell of the
egg, using it as a sort of “first course” before
resuming the more substantial vegetable diet.

Copyright by The Century Co.

THE BUCKEYE

Copyright by The Century Co.

ORANGE-SKIRTED CALICO

Copyright by the Century Co.

GREAT SPANGLED FRITILLARY

After the caterpillar has molted four or five
times it is transformed into a chrysalis, reverting
to a stationary condition, fixed as immovably
as it was fixed when it was only an egg.
The process of transformation is wonderful,
and well repays attention. Among butterflies
there are three kinds of chrysalids,—those which are pendant from a knob
of silk, those which are supported by girdles as well as by a silken knob,
and those which are free and lie loose between leaves and rubbish, stitched
together with a few strands of silk. The chrysalids of the “brush-footed
butterflies” (Nymphalidæ) are always pendant; those of the other families
are cinctured, or provided with
girdles, except the “skippers” (Hesperiidæ),
the chrysalids of which are
free, and often are found on the
ground, like the chrysalids of moths.

Figure 5 shows a caterpillar of the
Monarch or Milkweed butterfly undergoing
the change into a chrysalis.
There comes a critical moment when
the creature has wriggled itself nearly
out of its skin, and when the only
thing to keep it hanging in its place
is a fold of this skin caught, as shown
at c, between two segments or rings
of the abdomen. Thus suspended,
it feels about with the cremaster,
as the spine at the end
of its tail is called, which is full of
minute curved hooklets at its end.
As soon as the creature feels these
hooklets securely gripping into
the silk of the button above, it
straightens out, and lets go its
hold upon the old skin and assumes
the form given in Figure 6,
which gives the outline of the
perfect chrysalis of this species,—a
truly beautiful object, pale,
pearly green in color, adorned with spots of burnished
gold. Figure 7 shows the cinctured chrysalis of the Pipevine
Swallowtail. After sufficient time has elapsed to
permit of certain developments which take place in the
chrysalis, the butterfly emerges. The thing, which has
slept as if in a coffin, comes forth on airy wings to disport itself
among the flowers. Little wonder that poets have seen
in this transformation an emblem of the Resurrection!

Some of the butterflies of the United States belong to
genera which are not confined to this country, but which
occur also in the Eastern Hemisphere. Indeed, some few
species are identically the same as are found in Europe
and Asia. The Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) and the
Mourning Cloak (Vanessa antiopa) are as familiar to
English and German schoolboys as they are to boys in
America. The Painted Lady (Pyrameis cardui), known also as the
Thistle butterfly, is a cosmopolitan, and occurs all over the world, except
perhaps in the hot jungles of the Kongo and the Amazons. The Mourning
Cloak hibernates as a butterfly. In February, 1915, one of the guards
in the Carnegie Museum found a specimen of this butterfly which had
flown into the building. The day had been mild, and it had ventured
forth from its hiding place under the eaves, or in a hollow tree. These
butterflies may be found early in spring,
as soon as the sap begins to flow, congregating
in the sugar camps and sipping the
drip of the maple trees. Comparatively
few butterflies pass the winter in the
winged form, but undergo its rigors as
chrysalids or as larvæ.

Fig. 16

VIVARIUM

A breeding cage in which caterpillars may be
reared until the butterflies are produced

MIGRATION OF BUTTERFLIES

Copyright by The Century Co.

CLOUDED SULPHUR

Most of the butterflies of the United
States show a relationship to those of the
lands south of us. As the ice at the end
of the Glacial Period retreated there was
an invasion of forms from the south. The
Monarch, one of our very commonest species,
makes an annual migration into the
northern parts of the continent, coming up
from the south, as the milkweeds begin to
sprout and put forth leaves, and then in
autumn retreats again to “lands of sun.”
The species goes far north into Canada,
and in the fall of the year huge swarms
of the retiring insects may be seen clustering
upon trees on the northern shores of the Great
Lakes, and also about Cape May in New
Jersey. Many, no doubt, are drowned in the
lakes and in the ocean as they try to make
their way farther south.

Copyright by the Century Co.

COMMON WOOD-NYMPH

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EYED EMPEROR

Among the most conspicuous and beautiful
butterflies of the United States are
the Swallowtails, which belong to the genus
Papilio. We have many species. There are
only three found in all Europe. One of these
(Papilio machaon), now nearly extinct in
England, surviving only in the fens of Cambridge
and Norfolk, has many first cousins
in North America, one of which (Papilio
zelicaon) is represented on the plate entitled
“A Group of Swallowtails.” The metropolis
of the Machaon group of Swallowtails is
North America, and species belonging to it
are found from Newfoundland to Central
America. I have a strong suspicion that the
butterflies of this group originated in the
New World, as did the horse, the camel,
and many other animals, and that at a time
when North America and Asia were connected
with each other in the region of
Bering Sea, as we know they were, this
insect “went west” and finally established
a colony in England, which was at
about that time also hitched fast to the
continent of Europe.

GREAT SEX DIFFERENCES

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THISTLE BUTTERFLY

Another group of butterflies which
are nobly represented in North America
are the Fritillaries, belonging to the
genera Argynnis and Brenthis. A group
of these insects is shown in one of the
plates. The reader will observe how
great a difference there is between the
males and the females, especially of
Argynnis Diana. When the sexes thus
differ they are said to be “sexually dimorphic.”
There are other kinds of
dimorphism. When butterflies have several
broods it has been observed that those of the
spring brood differ in form and markings
from those of the summer brood, and again
from those which come forth in the fall of
the year. Such species are said to be “seasonally
dimorphic.” In the tropics we recognize
what are known as “dry season forms”
and “rainy season forms,” which are often
very unlike each other. Sexual dimorphism
is not so pronounced in all species of the
genus Argynnis as it is in A. Diana. The
Fritillaries have their metropolis in North
America, but are also well represented in
Asia, Europe, and to some degree in Africa
and in South America. In the latter continent
the species occur among the cool
Andean regions and in the far south, in
Patagonia. It is a curious fact that on the
flanks of Mounts Kenia and Kilimanjaro,
in Africa, separated by thousands of miles
from their congeners, there are species of this
group of butterflies. How did they get there?
The geologist maybe can answer.

Copyright by The Century Co.

THE COMMA

America is rich in species belonging to the family of the Hesperiidæ
or “Skippers.” They are well named, as anyone who has watched them
skipping and gamboling among the flowers can testify. They seem
to be in some respects intermediate between the other butterflies and
the moths.

An adequate account of the breeding of butterflies and of the methods
of preserving them for study and display would require another article.
I will then, at this time, simply refer the curious to the books already
written about these things, and, if any of The Mentor readers are tempted
to find the secret of eternal youth, by becoming entomologists, they will
discover that every library of any size has in it today copies of the books
they need to guide them. That was not the
case forty years ago.

Copyright by The Century Co.

NETTLE TORTOISE SHELL

THE UTILITY OF ENTOMOLOGY

The annual loss suffered by agricultural
communities through ignorance of entomological
facts is very great. Every plant has its insect
enemy, or, more correctly, its insect lover, which
feeds upon it, delights in its luxuriance, but
makes short work, it may be of leaves, it may
be of flowers, it may be of fruit. It has been estimated that every
known species of plant has five or six species of insects which habitually
feed upon it.

We all have heard of the Hessian fly, of the weevil, and of the army-worm.
The legislature of Massachusetts has in recent years been spending
hundreds of thousands of dollars in the attempt to exterminate the
gipsy moth. The caterpillar of the Cabbage butterfly ruins every year
material enough to supply sauerkraut to half of the people. The codling
moth, the little pinkish caterpillar which worms its way through
apples, is estimated to destroy five millions of dollars’ worth of apples
every year within the limits of the United States.

A few facts like these serve to show that the study of entomology
is not a study which deserves to be placed in the category of useless
pursuits. Viewed merely from a utilitarian standpoint, this study is one
of the most important, far outranking, in its actual value to communities,
the study of many branches of zoölogical science which some people
affect to regard as of a higher order.

Copyright The Century Co.

SILVER-BORDERED FRITILLARY

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Copyright by The Century Co.

BRUER’S LEMONAIS

Reprinted, by special permission,
from the Century
Dictionary

Copyright by W. J. Holland, 1898

THE PURPLISH COPPER

From “The Butterfly Book”

Copyright by W. J. Holland, 1898

REAKIRT’S ORANGE-TIP

From “The Butterfly Book”

Copyright by W. J. Holland, 1898

THE RED SATYR

From “The Butterfly Book”

THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND

By Samuel Hubbard Scudder.

3 vols., illustrated by numerous fine plates and maps,
showing over 100 species, with countless anatomical
details, etc.

THE BUTTERFLIES OF NORTH AMERICA

By William Henry Edwards.

Numerous exquisite plates, in which over 200 species
are figured.

THE BUTTERFLY BOOK

By W. J. Holland.

48 colored plates, showing 525 species and varieties.

THE BUTTERFLY GUIDE

By W. J. Holland.

150 small plates, showing 255 commoner species in
natural colors. (In press.)

THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE EASTERN
UNITED STATES

By G. H. French.

HOW TO KNOW THE BUTTERFLIES

By John Henry and Anna Botsford Comstock.

45 colored plates, showing about 125 species.

GUIDE TO BUTTERFLIES

By Samuel Hubbard Scudder.

22 uncolored plates, showing about 100 species.

THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE WEST COAST

By W. G. Wright.

32 colored plates, with figures of 487 species.

There are no small things in Nature,
whatever the text-books say. All things
in life are large and important if we will
but have them so. The terms “large”
and “small” are simply relative. To the
eye of the insect world the delicate butterfly
is a monster with widespread wings
that completely cover the sky. To us
the butterfly is an
aery trifle, a gentle,
silken-winged creature,
a favorite subject
of the poet’s
fancy, “fluttering
gaily, frolicking
daily”—its life all
pleasure, its task all
play.

MILKWEED BUTTERFLY

Anosia plexippus, Linnæus. Body dark, border of
wings black and spotted, center orange in color

And yet while so
substantial and
ponderous an animal
as an ox can do
its heavy work under a name containing
but two letters, these fragile, fairy creatures
must bear up under the burden of
such titles as Argynnis Cybele or Lycæna
Pseudargiolus. To the untutored mind
it seems unfair.

But Dr. Holland tells us that we must
not be daunted by this, nor let it check
our interest in the study of butterflies.
“The student of this delightful branch of
science,” he says, “is certain to be called
upon to use some rather long and uncouth
words in the pursuit of the subject.
But experience will soon enable him to
master any little difficulties that arise
from this source, and he will finally come
to recognize how useful these technical
terms are in designating distinctions
which exist, but which are often wholly
overlooked by the uneducated and unobservant.”
It is reassuring, then, to be told
by Dr. Holland that the collector at the
outset need not tax his memory with the
long scientific names which he encounters
in the books. The late Dr. Horn, a most
eminent entomologist, once said to Dr.
Holland that he made it a duty not to
try to remember the scientific names.
He was content to have these names attached
to the pins
holding the specimens
in his cabinet,
where he could easily
refer to them.

“In writing about
butterflies,” Dr.
Holland says, “it is
quite customary to
abbreviate the generic
name by giving
merely its initial.
Thus, in writing
about the Milkweed
Butterfly, Anosia
plexippus, the naturalist will designate it
as A. plexippus.” Then he will attach
the name of the man who gave this
specific name to the insect. As Linnæus
was the first to name this particular insect,
the abbreviation would be as follows:
A. plexippus, Linn. This simplifies
things to some extent.

“In speaking about butterflies,” writes
Dr. Holland, “it is quite common to omit
the generic name altogether and use only
the specific name. Thus, after returning
from a collecting trip, I might say: ‘I
was quite successful today. I took twenty
Aphrodites, four Myrinas, and two specimens
of Atlantis.’ In this case there can
be no misunderstanding of the meaning.”
The specific names alone are sufficient,
and they are easy enough for any enthusiastic
collector to learn.

W. D. Moffat
Editor

BUTTERFLIES

THISTLE BUTTERFLIES, ANGLE WINGS, AND SULPHURS

Monograph Number Six in The Mentor Reading Course

Painted Lady and Thistle Butterfly are prettier names
than Pyrameis cardui for the familiar speckled, brown creature
with a roseate tinge shown at the top of the plate. Found
wherever the thistle grows, it is therefore one of the most
widely distributed of all butterflies (as the thistle is one of
the most widely distributed of all plants), fluttering over the purple
blooms in the temperate regions of both hemispheres and in many tropical
lands as well. It is hard to distinguish the Painted Lady from
Hunter’s butterfly on the left. If, however, we should look on the under
side of the hind wings, we should find that the Hunter’s butterfly has
two large eyelike spots there, and the Painted Lady numerous and
smaller eyelike spots. The two specimens are male.

Another common butterfly belongs to the Angle Wings, whose characteristics
are deeply cut fore wings, the under side mimicking the bark
of trees and dead leaves. The under side of the rover shown here visiting
a dandelion is mottled brown with a pale purple hue. A silvery mark,
like a semicolon or an interrogation, on the hind wings gives Grapta interrogationis
its curious name. This is a common butterfly in the United
States. Happy flocks are frequently found at the pans and buckets in
a sugar camp, joyfully drinking the sap which drips from the wounded
maples.

The splendid female spreading her lustrous velvet wings and rocking
on a buttercup, on the lower right, is Vanessa antiopa, popularly
known as the Mourning Cloak and the Camberwell Beauty. Though
common in the north temperate zone, this splendid butterfly is none the
less beautiful because it is a familiar object. The blue spots and the
yellow border form a very decorative combination. The eggs of this
butterfly are laid on twigs of willows and elms, upon which the caterpillars
feed. The wings are noticeably graceful in line and proportion.
The Painted Lady, the Hunter’s butterfly, the Interrogation butterfly,
and the Mourning Cloak belong to the enormous family of the Nymphalidæ,
or brush-footed butterflies.

In an entirely different family are classed the Sulphurs, belonging to
the genus Colias. They are medium-seized butterflies, yellow or orange in
hue, with black borders upon their wings. Though there are many varieties,
ranging from the palest primrose to the deepest orange, and varying
also in size as well as color, yet, in the main, the species is remarkably constant.
The chief food of the Sulphurs is clover, and consequently the
lovely pink and white clover fields are alive with these delicate little
sprites. The Sulphurs also swarm in moist places by the wayside, and
rise from pools and ruts in the roads at the approach of persons or vehicles.
The butterflies in this family have six walking feet. The family,
the Papilionidæ, which includes the Swallowtails and their allies, the
Sulphurs and Whites, is very large.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 3, No. 12, SERIAL No. 88
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

BUTTERFLIES

SILVER SPOTS

Monograph Number Two in The Mentor Reading Course

The Fritillaries (taking their name from their resemblance to
the spotted flowers of the lily, called fritillary), or Silver
Spots, belong to the Nymphalidæ, one of the largest families
of butterflies. The scientific name of the genus is Argynnis.

These Fritillaries, or Silver Spots, are of medium or large
size, generally with the upper surface of the wings reddish or tawny
yellow, marked with well-defined black stripes and spots like arrowheads
near the outer borders. On the under side of the fore wings the design
is faintly repeated; while on the under side of the hind wings large silvery
spots are so numerous and characteristic that they give this tribe its
popular name. The eyes are bare, the antennæ moderately long,
ending in a well-defined, flattened club.

These beautiful butterflies are found all over the world; but they
have reached their greatest development in North America. One cannot
travel anywhere in the summer and early autumn without seeing
some form of the genus.

The sexes seem to have equally divided their fine points; for the male
is brighter in hue on the upper surface, while the female has the broader
black markings on her paler ground color. This will be evident by
looking at the plate, where the male and female of three varieties of
Fritillaries appear. The two in the center are classified as Argynnis
Diana. These splendid creatures, the finest of their race, are found at
their best in Virginia, the Carolinas, northern Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee,
Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, and Arkansas. The male is a deep,
rich brown, with a dull, orange border, ornamented with two rows of
brown spots, larger on the fore than on the hind wings. The under side
of the wings is pale buff, deeply marked with black on the fore wings;
while the hind wings are decorated with silvery crescents on a rich, velvety,
bluish black. The fore wings of the female are ornamented with
three rows of bright blue spots (the outer row sometimes is pale blue or
white). Blue spots edge the hind wings, the inner row somewhat
squared, and each has a central spot of black. Blue and black spots
mark the under side of her fore wings, and silvery crescents and spots
the under side of her hind wings.

The Great Spangled Fritillary appears on the plate. Its scientific name
is Argynnis cybele. It ranges over the Atlantic States and the valley
of the Mississippi as far as Nebraska. A small variety is found in New
Mexico. The upper surface is tawny red, with heavy and handsome
stripes and spots of black. The under side is heavily silvered. The
female is paler than the male and appears to wear a kind of bolero jacket
of dark, chocolate brown. Her markings are heavier than those of her
lord and master. On the under side she wears exactly the same silvery
decorations that he sports.

Argynnis Leto is represented at the bottom of the plate, and greatly
resembles the former variety. Its ground color is paler; but the female
is more heavily marked, but with less silver underneath.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 3, No. 12, SERIAL No. 88
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

BUTTERFLIES

WHITE ADMIRALS

Monograph Number Three in The Mentor Reading Course

The largest family of butterflies is called Nymphalidæ,—a
pretty name; for are not these “winged flowers” nymphs
and sylphs of the woods and fields?

This family is also called “Brush-footed,” because the
fore legs are without tarsi, or feet, in both sexes; the first
pair of legs being dwarfed, the feet looking like a brush of hairs, and
so utterly useless for walking that they are carried folded up against the
breast. This enormous family is divided into many subfamilies. It embraces
both large and small species. The family is ancient, and most
fossil butterflies so far discovered belong to it.

A widely distributed genus of this family comprises the White Admirals
(Basilarchia). These are among our most interesting butterflies.
Their heads are large, their antennæ moderately long, ending in a short
club, their fore wings subtriangular with the tip well rounded, and the
hind wings rounded and scalloped. The plate exhibits several varieties.
In the lower right is Basilarchia astyanax, or the Red-spotted Purple,
which ranges from southern Canada through the United States as far
as the Rocky Mountains and even to Mexico. This butterfly is somewhat
variable, not always keeping closely to its type.

Flying downward in the upper right and center are two forms of
Basilarchia arthemis. The central butterfly is distinguished by broad
white bands crossing both the fore wings and the hind wings. It is
further ornamented on the hind wings by a row of red spots shading into
blue and crescents following the indentations. In the form above,
known as proserpina, the white bands are less marked. The main characteristic
of the forms is the persistence of the red spots on the upper side
of the hind wings. These butterflies abound in New England, New York,
Quebec, Ontario, and parts of Pennsylvania. A close family resemblance
is traced in the Basilarchia Weidenmeyeri in the upper left-hand
corner. It differs by having a series of white spots on the borders of
the wings.

Lorquin’s Admiral (Basilarchia Lorquini) is easily distinguished
from all other species by the short yellowish bar near the middle of the
fore wings and the bright red hue of the tips of these wings. A California
species appears in the lower left-hand corner, handsomely
banded and strikingly marked with orange-red spots near the ends of
the fore wings.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 3, No. 12, SERIAL No. 88
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

BUTTERFLIES

THE SWALLOWTAILS

Monograph Number Four in The Mentor Reading Course

Three Swallowtails appear among the apple blossoms on
this plate. This group of the Papilionidæ is characterized
by having a long tail at the end of each hind wing. Swallowtails
are usually large, with great diversity of form in the
wings. Some species mimic the Milkweed butterflies and
the Heliconians, in such cases having no tails. A small matter like
that does not disturb the entomologist, who has other ways of testing
than diversities of color and form. He looks at the anatomy of the
insect, and no amount of mimicry can save the pretender from being
properly classified.

The Milkweed butterfly is particularly distasteful to birds, and therefore
enjoys freedom from attack by them. Other butterflies are equally
distasteful, and are therefore “protected,” as naturalists say. As the
result of a slow process of development, some of the members of the
Swallowtail tribe, as well as of other tribes, have come to resemble
these protected butterflies, and share with them their immunity from
attack. This mimicry is not conscious, nor in any sense an evidence of
superior intelligence or sagacity.

The magnificent Swallowtail on the right (Papilio daunus) keeps
his brilliant eyes wide open and depends upon his own rapid flight from
his swift and eager pursuer rather than impair features which are as characteristic
in his family as the Hapsburg lip or the Bourbon nose in those
dynasties. Papilio daunus has two tails on each wing, going one better
than the pride of the family, the Tiger Swallowtail, which has but one.
He is doubtless very proud of the lobes of the interior angles of his hind
wings. This variety is found in the eastern valleys of the Rocky Mountains,
in Arizona, and in Mexico. Below is Papilio pulumnus, a little
smaller than the preceding, with heavier markings and with the inner
lobe of the wing so developed as to give him the appearance of having
three tails. This butterfly is a Mexican, but is occasionally found in
Arizona.

Flying downward is another variety, the Papilio zelicaon, whose
broad black borders are decorated with white spots. It has but one tail.
Its range is from Vancouver Island to Arizona and eastward to Colorado;
but it prefers the valleys and foothills to the Sierras. The Swallowtails
are wonderfully developed in the tropics. Many species are found in
America, but only one in England. Swallowtails are great favorites with
collectors. They have six walking feet in both sexes, and their flight
is swift and dashing.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 3, No. 12, SERIAL No. 88
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

BUTTERFLIES

RED ADMIRAL, SWALLOWTAIL, AND SKIPPER

Monograph Number One in The Mentor Reading Course

The two butterflies on the right are the male and female of the
Tiger Swallowtail, the finest of this tribe. Papilio turnus is
its technical name, and it abounds in Pennsylvania, Virginia,
Maryland, North and South Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
It is charming in its bold and rapid motions, and is
a restless creature, always on the wing. Its dark bands are arranged
after the fashion of a tiger’s stripes, whence its name. The Tiger Swallowtail
has a tendency to produce dark forms; and the dark form of the
female was long regarded as a distinct species until it was discovered
that some eggs produced by yellow females produced black females, and
conversely some eggs produced by black females produced yellow females.

The brilliant butterfly poised on the blades of grass on the left is the
well known Red Admiral, familiar throughout North America, Europe,
Asia, and Africa. It belongs to the “Brush-footed” race. Below it a
little Sulphur shows the inside of its wings. This, the Colias eriphyle, extends
from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Canada to Florida and
Texas.

The little brown Silver-spotted Skipper standing on the open flower,
with a broad, irregular silvery spot on the under side of the hind wings,
also has a wide range. It is found from Canada to the Isthmus of Panama.
The Silver-spotted Skipper belongs to the Hesperiidæ, which are generally
small in size, with stout bodies. They have six walking feet in
both sexes, and spurs on the hind feet. The antennæ of many of these
butterflies end in a fine point and are usually bent into a hook. They are
noted for their quick, strong flight. When at rest most of the skippers
hold their wings erect, though some of them extend them horizontally.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 3, No. 12, SERIAL No. 88
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

BUTTERFLIES

THE SKIPPERS

Monograph Number Five in The Mentor Reading Course

All the little brown butterflies fluttering in various positions
on this plate are Skippers, members of the family of the Hesperiidæ.
These are generally small and stout and have a
quick, strong flight. The most striking one here is the Long-tailed
Skipper, flying downward on the left. The upper
side of his wings are brown, glossed with green at the base. The
fore wings are spotted. This butterfly lays its eggs on the wistaria and
butterfly pea. Though tropical, Eudamus protens is occasionally found
along the Atlantic seacoast as far north as New York.

In the upper right-hand corner is a female Brazilian Skipper, a robust,
thick-bodied butterfly common in the Gulf States and North Carolina
and ranging southward through the Antilles to Argentina.

A little below is the Common Sooty Wing, black on both sides of
the wings with a series of little spots. It belongs to all of North America.
The New Mexican Sooty Wing is in full flight at the upper left corner.
It is common in Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico.

The brown one, the Sleepy Dusky Wing flying downward in the center
and the large black one below the Common Sooty Wing belong to the
genus Thanaos, the Dusky Wings, a group which reaches its largest
development in North America. They are all dark; but a few varieties
have bright spots on their hind wings.

Few know the one in the center, Plestea dorus, as it is confined to
Arizona and Mexico. Its life history is unknown.

The brown one above the Long-tailed Skipper is called Afranius’s
Dusky Wing. It is common in Arizona. The one below the Common
Sooty Wing is Thanaos Clitus, having black hind wings with a broad
fringe of white. Its home is Arizona and New Mexico. Nothing is
known of its early stages.

The large butterfly in the lower left corner is Pyrrhopyginæ craxes, a
native of southern Texas, Mexico, and farther south. Its antennæ end
in curved, blunt clubs. When resting it spreads its wings horizontally.
Nothing is known of its life history.

Poised on the clover a female Hoary Edge shows the under side of
her wings. This belongs to the Middle and Southern States.

Flying toward the white bloom is a relative, a male Golden-banded
Skipper, common in Virginia, the Carolinas, and westward to Arizona
and Mexico.

Much more beautiful in form is the Swallowtail, Papilio rutulus,
the Pacific Coast representative of the Tiger Swallowtail of the Atlantic
States. Its ground color is a pale yellow, and it has tiger stripes like its
near cousin.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 3, No. 12, SERIAL No. 88
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

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