194 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [September, 



sugar. It is an early as well as a late flyer, appearing soon after 

 sunrise on the eastern borders of woods, and as the day advances 

 retreating into them. In the middle of the day it may be found 

 around patches of sunlight in thick woods, and when possible it 

 loves to congregate around some moist place in a wood-road 

 where the cart wheels have turned up the rich, damp mould. 

 In one such locality I have frequently started up eight or ten 

 usually in company with several Satyrus alope and nephele. 



One afternoon while collecting along a wood-road I flushed a 

 fine specimen of Grapta j- album. I gave chase, and, after a time, 

 thinking I saw my chance, made a stroke and missed. The but- 

 terfly startled struck out a bee-line for space when, to my surprise, 

 a large dragonfly attacked, and, after a brief struggle, over- 

 powered it. Folding back its victim's wings this terror of the 

 insect world settled on a pine limb about ten or twelve feet from 

 the ground, there to suck its juices. In this object it was de- 

 feated, for a club, suddenly starting from the ground near my 

 feet, struck the branch on which it was resting, whereupon it 

 dropped its prey uninjured from an entomological point of view 

 and made off. I have frequently seen smaller butterflies captured 

 in this manner, but never before one so large and powerful. 



Perhaps the most social butterfly in this locality is Phyciodes 

 nycteis. I had always counted this species a great rarity until 

 one day when I noticed a specimen while walking along a country 

 road. I at once gave chase and captured it. A few steps farther 

 along and another started up and before I had taken this two 

 more were in sight. Before I captured these two I found myself 

 surrounded on all sides by them. In a space less than a rod 

 across I counted over forty, and perhaps there were twice that 

 number besides in the immediate vicinity. There seemed to be 

 no especial attraction as they were variously employed, some on 

 the flowers of milkweed and dog-bane, some on mud, and many 

 without apparent occupation of any kind. 



Colias phihdice and Papilio turnus frequently congregate in 

 numbers after a rain, but in such cases evidently with a common 

 purpose and not for the mere sake of each other's society. I 

 once saw Vanessa antiopa in quantities under an apple tree in a 

 cow-path where the apples had been crushed by passing cows. 



