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The Goatweed Emperor (Andria A-n a an'dri'a PLATE)

Anæa andria (A-næ'a an'dri'a) PLATE XXIX, FIG. 5, 6 This butterfly is sharply distinguished from all other butterflies found in our fauna by the striking form of its wings. The wings of the male are rich dark orange margined with brown; those of the female are paler orange margined with brown, and with a very irregular, transverse, broad, paler band crossing both wings, and edged on either side with dark brown.

CATERPILLAR.-Length one and one-half inches. Color grayish green covered with many raised points. The head is gray green ornamented at the sides with small tubercles which are a little larger on the crown.

Food-plant. Goatweed.

Butterflies are like people in many important particulars. One of these points of similarity is that some of them attract us and some repel, and we can not explain why. A case in point is the goatweed emperor; though it has handsome orange-red wings banded with yellow and margined with brown, and has the tips of the front and hind wings extended in graceful points, yet the authors of this book in a confidential moment confessed to each other that they had never liked this butterfly; and both agreed that they would rather have on their premises one impudent, meddling American copper than all the goatweed emperors in the world; and yet, perhaps it is hardly fair to bias public opinion by expressing such an unreasonable prejudice in print.

The caterpillar, like those of the sovereigns, at first eats the tip of the leaf, leaving the midrib on which it rests. Later it spreads a silken mat on the upper surface of a leaf, drawing the edges together above it; hiding in this nest it proceeds to eat away the base of the leaf until it has actually eaten itself "out of house and home"; then it moves on to another site and goes through a like performance. When nearly grown it seems to gain wisdom, and late in the afternoon it often leaves its home temporarily and feeds on neighboring leaves. The goatweed butterfly is found in the Western States from Illinois to Texas. It is double-brooded, and hibernates as a butterfly.

When chirping crickets fainter cry And pale stars blossom in the sky, And twilight's gloom had dimmed the bloom And blurred the butterfly.