Nature biographies; the lives of some every-day butterflies; moths; grasshoppers and flies . Nature Biographies. Avings wide open. On being disturbed, it would fly ashort distance and then alight, and I was interested tonotice that after ahghting it would always turn aboutuntil the hind end of its body pointed in the direction ofthe sun, so that the suns rays struck its wings and bodynearly at right angles. I repeatedly observed this habitof getting into the position in which the most benefitfrom the sunshine was received, and it is of interest as /. Fig. 82. — Butterfly in Hibernating Positio
Nature biographies; the lives of some every-day butterflies; moths; grasshoppers and flies . Nature Biographies. Avings wide open. On being disturbed, it would fly ashort distance and then alight, and I was interested tonotice that after ahghting it would always turn aboutuntil the hind end of its body pointed in the direction ofthe sun, so that the suns rays struck its wings and bodynearly at right angles. I repeatedly observed this habitof getting into the position in which the most benefitfrom the sunshine was received, and it is of interest as /. Fig. 82. — Butterfly in Hibernating Position. showing the extreme delicacy of perception toward thewarmth of sunshine which these creatures possess. During the colder part of the year in bright weatherwdien these butterflies are most often abroad, they com-monly hold their wings open when they alight, but dur-ing the warmer summer days, they are more likely to restwith the wings closed. When the warm days no longer tempt them abroad,the mourning-cloak butterflies seek shelter in manysorts of situations, — under loose bark, in hollow trees,under cuh^erts and bridges, in woodpiles, in crevices of 80 The Antiopa or Mourning-cloak Butterfly. rocks, or alongside logs lying on the ground. In suchretreats they remain until the sunshine of spring againcalls them forth. The mourning-cloak butterflies subsist upon a con-siderable variety of liquid food which they suck throughtheir long tongues. In spring, when they first come fromtheir winter quarters, they visit the stumps of recentlycut t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectinsects, bookyear1901
