Many insect visitors approach the flowers; some, like the
bees, are working for them in transferring pollen; others, like
the ants, which are trying to steal nectar, usually getting
killed on the sticky, cottony stem; and, hovering near, ever
conspicuous among the larger visitors, is the beautiful hunter's
butterfly (Pyrameis huntera), to be distinguished from its sister
the painted lady, always seen about thistles, by the two large
eye-like spots on the under side of the hind wings. What are
these butterflies doing about their chosen plants? Certainly the
minute florets of the everlasting offer no great inducements to a
creature that lives only on nectar. But that cocoon, compactly
woven with silk and petals, which hangs from the stem, tells the
story of the hunter's butterfly's presence. A brownish-drab
chrysalis, or a slate-colored and black-banded little caterpillar
with tufts of hairs on its back, and pretty red and white dots on
the dark stripes, shows our butterfly in the earlier stages of
its existence, when the everlastings form its staple diet.
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