74 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Mar., '07 



not until 1891 that Mr. Edwards captured a female in the 

 act of depositing her eggs on a species of Sisymbrium. He 

 watched the development of the larvae and gave a very brief 

 description of them in the supplement to his monumental work, 

 "The Butterflies of North America," in 1897. || 



His description of the adult larva is fairly accurate, but the 

 only specimen which attained its full growth died in pupation, 

 and so our knowledge of its life history was left incomplete. 



In the spring of 1905 my attention was called to the pres- 

 ence of Anthocharis olyinpia in the dune region about the 

 southern end of Lake Michigan. During the past season it 

 has been possible for me to study the complete life history 

 and the habits of this extremely interesting butterfly, both in 

 its native habitat and in the laboratory. The locality studied 

 lies between Clarke Junction and Pine, Indiana. 



The first collecting trip to that region was made April 28, 

 1906, and a number of specimens were captured, all of them 

 being the typical A. olympia, as figured by Edwards, although 

 some of them show a larger "white interior patch" on the fore- 

 wings than the one figured from Whiting, Indiana. 



It was found to alight almost exclusively upon the flower 

 clusters of Arabis lyrata L., the only Crucifer which can be 

 found in bloom at this early season in the dune region. A 

 second visit was made May I2th, and more adults were cap- 

 tured, but none of them seemed to be ovipositing. Being 

 firmly convinced that A. lyrata was the food plant, I made a 

 careful search, and, after a great many had been examined, 

 was rewarded by finding a few eggs. 



Edwards describes the eggs as red. If they are red when 

 first laid, they must turn orange yellow as development pro- 

 ceeds, for every egg seen was of this color. The eggs are 

 laid singly, usually only one, and very rarely more than two, 

 upon a single plant ; and in this case the eggs may have been 

 laid by different females. They are nearly always placed on 

 the sepals of the younger, centrally located buds, rarely on the 



| [Edwards, W. H., 1897. The Butterflies of North America, vol. iii. 

 Supplement, p. 2. 



Edwards, W. H., But. of No. Am., vol. iii. PI. 2. Anth. Fig. 5. 



