142 



T. 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



[Vol. XXXVI 



liparops) in the fall of 1920, has resulted in their 

 extermination, as not a single example has been 

 seen there since. Most of the Skippers were 

 fairly plentiful, but I have no record of having 

 seen The Arctic (C drier ocephalus palsemon) in 

 either year. In contrast to this apparent falling 

 off in the number of some species may be men- 

 tioned the great increase in that of others. Never 

 have I seen so many Tiger Swallow-tails (Papilio 

 glaums canadensis) as this year (1922). They 

 literally swarmed at some of the puddles on the 

 road side, and a photo sent me at the time by a 

 friend who was staying near Metis on the Gaspe 

 coast depicted a similar scene. The other mem- 

 ber of the family, The Black Swallow-tail (Papilio 

 polyxenes) , also appeared in very fair numbers, but 

 the greatest treat of all was the extraordinary 

 abundance of our largest and handsomest butter- 

 fly in these parts, the Monarch (Danaus archippus) 

 It is now four years since this great migrant 

 paid us a visit, so it can be imagined with what 

 pleasure I again saw it on June 24, from which 

 date its numbers kept increasing until July 21, 

 when I saw ten examples in one afternoon. 



On July 10 1 watched a female deposit several 

 eggs on the underside of the leaves of the common 

 milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), and on July 21 

 obtained about half a dozen full-fed larvae from 

 another locality. One of these changed to a 

 chrysalis two days later, and the butterfly emerged 

 on August 6, having been in the chrysalis shape 

 exactly a fortnight. The egg stage of this butter- 

 fly is a very short one lasting only about four days. 

 Those mentioned above hatched out in five days. 

 The life history of this beautiful insect is a most 

 interesting one. The butterfly is considered to 

 be polygoneutic, that is to say, many broods are 

 produced annually. Those we get in Canada 

 represent a wave of immigration coming north- 

 ward from the warmer Gulf States, which lay 

 their eggs as they come. It is not believed that 



any of them hibernate in any stage of their exis- 

 tence. In the fall they return, sometimes gather- 

 ing in great swarms on the northern shores of 

 Lakes Erie and Ontario and in southern New 

 Jersey. Within recent years it seems to have 

 effected a settlement in Australia, and has thence 

 spread northward and westward until it has 

 reached Java, Sumatra and the Philippine Islands. 



Moving eastward on the lines of travel it has 

 even reached the south of England, where, accord- 

 ing to the published records from 1876 (the year 

 in which it was first observed) to 1906, about thirty 

 specimens have been seen or caught, one third of 

 these being obtained in September, 1885. There 

 is no question concerning the migratory habits of 

 this butterfly but just how it reaches England is 

 not definitely known, neither is it known whether 

 upon arrival there it is able to reproduce its kind. 

 It was first observed on the Continent in 1877 at 

 La Vendee, France. In 1886, when half a dozen 

 were recorded from England, single specimens 

 were obtained in Guernsey, Oporto and Gibraltar. 

 It has been taken, I believe, in the Canary Islands, 

 and is well established at the Cape Verde Islands, 

 and possibly by now has invaded Africa, where it 

 would find the family of plants the larv?e feed upon 

 well represented. With such a history behind it, 

 is it possible to gaze upon the insect without 

 experiencing some kind of emotion, and yet it is so, 

 the vast majority of persons paying little or no 

 attention to the beauties around them! Its 

 counterpart, the Viceroy (Basilarchia archippus), 

 the most striking case of mimicry which occurs in 

 our fauna, has been seen on many occasions during 

 the past two seasons, the largest specimens of 

 which no doubt are often mistaken by the novice 

 for the Monarch. 



In conclusion the more we study nature the 

 more do we see how wonderfully adjusted are her 

 scales, a little increase here, a little decrease there, 

 so that always the balance appears about eqOal. 



THE EUROPEAN HARE IN ONTARIO 



By J. R. Dymond 



THE European Hare is one of the latest 

 additions to the list of species introduced 

 into Ontario from abroad. Its introduction 

 was brought about by Mr. Otto Herold, formerly 

 Manager of Bow Park Farm, near Brantford, Ont. 

 In a letter from Mr. Herold, now of Danzig on 

 the Baltic, he says, 



"In February, 1912, when I was Manager 

 of the Bow Park Farm near Brantford, I 

 imported from Germany seven females and 



two males. They belong to the species 

 Lepus timidus and were exported to the farm 

 by a German zoological exporter. 



"When they arrived I kept them fenced in 

 in order to see how they would do in the 

 climate. However, they found a loophole 

 and escaped. In the summer of 1912 we had 

 already found a bunch of young hares. They 

 usually have from two to three young hares 

 about three or four times a year. In Ger- 

 many the first young arrive in March which 

 usually have young ones again the same year. 



