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THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



some migratory insects which are comparatively harmless, and are far more 

 beautiful than any of the Qrthoptera. 



Many of the butterflies are inclined to migrations, particularly the 

 whites and yellows (Pieris, Colias and Callidryas). These genera, with 

 a few exceptions, are not very plentiful in temperate regions, but have 

 their home in warm climates. So from equatorial and South America, 

 and from the southern parts of Europe, have come reports of vast migra- 

 tions of these butterflies. Bates, in his " Naturalist on the River 

 Amazon," gives an interesting account of the uninterrupted procession 

 of butterflies belonging to the genus Callidryas which he saw passing from 



Fig- 20. 



morning to night in a southerly direction across the Amazon. In these 

 cases migrations may perhaps be connected with the question of food, or 

 of the continuance of the species. 



A butterfly which is well known in Canada, and which has a very wide 

 range, is noted for its migratory habits ; it is the Danais arc/iippus, fig. 20. 

 Hardly a season passes but we read of its migrations. Newspapers in the 

 Southwestern States, and the weather signal officers, were constantly report- 

 ing the passage over Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Texas of swarms of this 

 butterfly during the months of September and October last. Even in 

 Canada they are sometimes seen in great numbers on their way either 

 north or south. I myself have seen the shore of Lake Ontario, near 

 Brighton, strewn with hundreds of their dead bodies, cast up by the 

 waves, and which no doubt had formed part of a swarm which from weak- 

 ness or some other cause had perished while flying across the lake. 



