TlIK UANxiULVN ENTOMOLOGIST. 109 



NOTES ON BUTTERFLIES, WITH DIRECTIONS FOR 

 BREEDING THEM FROM THE EGG. 



BY W. II. EDWARDS, COALBURGH, W. VA. 



( Coiitinucd from page 8g.) 



The eggs of butterflies are very interesting objects. As a rule, those 

 of each natural genus (I speak of the North American fauna, for I know 

 nothing of the eggs of tropical butterflies), are closely alike, as in Pieris, 

 Anthocharis, Colias, Terias, Callidryas ; and so, while each genus has 

 peculiarities of its own, there is a family resemblance between these genera 

 (of the sub-family Pierinae). They are all of one general shape, long, 

 slender, sub-conic, or spindle-shaped, set on end, but differently ribbed 

 according to the genus. So the eggs of Danais and Heliconia and Agraulis 

 each have their own pattern. All Argynnis eggs, whether of the large or 

 small species (Groups i and 2), are thimble-shaped. On the other hand, 

 Euptoieta, by its egg, is allied to Argynnis, while by the chrysalis, it is 

 allied to Melitsea. It links the two genera, and in my Catalogue of Di. Lep., 

 I place it between these two, instead of before Argynnis, as has usually 

 been the arrangement. So Melitsa, Phyciodes, Limenitis, Apatura, 

 Paphia, Satyrus, Neonympha, Chionobas, may all be distinguished as 

 readily by the eggs as by the butterflies. Lycaena, Lemonias, Thecla, 

 Chrysophanus, so far as I know them, all show generic pecuharities in the 

 egg stage. So does Papilio, though some of the species, as Philetior and 

 Crespho?ites, have the surface covei'ed with a rough crust, the usual type 

 being smooth-surfaced. Now Parnassius is ranked as belonging to the 

 Papilionidse and to the sub-family Papilioninse, which includes the genus 

 Papilio. And here alone among the American butterflies, so far as the 

 early stages are known, is an anomaly. By the egg, Parnassius should 

 stand near Lemonias and Lycaena, while by the chrysalis it is near the 

 Hesperidae or some of the Heterocera. By the caterpillar, it is widely 

 separated from Papilio, having a resemblance to that genus in but a single 

 character, the tentacles on second segment. So it is that I am confident 

 that in a proper systematic arrangement of families and genera, where the 

 preparatory stages were taken into consideration, Parnassius would stand 

 near Lemonias. 



The eggs of Hesperidae are largely dome-shaped, either sub-conic or 

 half a sphere ; of the latter type is Ancyloxypha Ntimitor, of the former 



