162 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



eggs. All these larvae of both lots proceeded to chrysalis, none of them 

 becoming lethargic, as do larvae of many species of butterflies in their 

 summer broods. 



Early on 27 th of July I turned out 12 myrina, . which had emerged 

 from chrysalis since the previous evening, and about nine o'clock I 

 observed a pair in copulation in the grass near my house. They were 

 perfectly quiet and I was able to examine the female carefully to see if 

 there was any abrasion of scales on thorax above, or on the wings. She 

 was perfect and I have no doubt was one of those turned loose that 

 morning. Passing along an hour later, and seeing this pair still in the 

 same spot, I placed the inner edge of my net gently by the female, and 

 she immediately climbed up, dragging the male after her. From the net 

 they were easily transferred to a box and left in quiet. At 7 p. m. they 

 had not separated. By 6 next morning they had, and I at once set the 

 female on a plant of violet, under a bag. Within an hour several eggs 

 were laid on the leaves, and within 48 hours many more had been laid on 

 the leaves and the bag, when I let the insect fly. I counted 93 eggs in 

 all. I had noticed that the freshest possible females of iharos and of 

 nycieis lay eggs readily on being shut up with their food plants, and the 

 same thing with Papilio a/ax, but hardly supposed the whole process was 

 quite so rapid as in the present case. These eggs gave larvae 4th and 5th 

 of August, and the butterflies from them will again lay the eggs for the 

 hybernating larvae which will go to make the June brood of next year. 

 Of this last brood of the year I as yet know nothing from observation. 

 Whether the larvae hybernate when half grown, as do the larvae of many 

 Melitceas, or as soon as hatched from the egg, as do the larvae of cybele 

 and other species of Argyfinis, remains to be discovered. 



In 1 87 5, the eggs laid between 20th and 25th July produced butterflies 

 by 3rd September. The eggs laid by the female 28th July, 1876, pro- 

 duces a corresponding brood with those of July, 1875, just mentioned. 

 And this brood is the aestival of Scudder. But it should be called the 

 autumnal, and the mid-brood, the butterflies of which have emerged 

 between 15th and 31st July, as stated, the aestival, the early brood from 

 hybernating larvae being the vernal. 



Description of Preparatory Stages of A. Myrina : 



EGG — conoidal, slightly rounded at base, truncated and rounded at 

 summit; marked by 14 (or about) thin vertical ridges, which are some- 

 what wavy, and mostly extend from base to summit, not quite meeting 



