BUTTERFLIES
BUTTERFLIES
Monograph Number Four in The Mentor Reading Course
The butterfly the ancient Grecians madeThe soul’s fair emblem and its only name.—Coleridge.
The butterfly the ancient Grecians madeThe soul’s fair emblem and its only name.—Coleridge.
The butterfly the ancient Grecians made
The soul’s fair emblem and its only name.—Coleridge.
Three Swallowtails appear among the apple blossoms on this plate. This group of thePapilionidæis 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 daunushas 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 isPapilio 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, thePapilio 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 ASSOCIATIONILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 3, No. 12, SERIAL No. 88COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
The Butterfly BookCourtesy Doubleday, Page & Co.Copyrighted by W. J. Holland, 1898A GROUP OF VERY COMMON BUTTERFLIES1.Papilio turnus, Linnæus, ♂ (male)2.Papilio turnus, Linnæus, dimorphic, ♀ (female),glaucus, Linnæus3.Coltas eriphyle, Edwards—Colias hageni, ♂ (male), Edwards,under side4.Pyrameis atalanta, Linnæus, ♂ (male)5.Epargyreus tityrus, Fabricius, ♂ (male)
The Butterfly Book
Courtesy Doubleday, Page & Co.
Copyrighted by W. J. Holland, 1898
A GROUP OF VERY COMMON BUTTERFLIES