THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 189 



head, antennae, thorax and fore wings of this color. Primaries with three 

 transverse darker lines, the t. a., median shade and t. p. lines, all indis- 

 tinct, the t. p. line followed by faint blackish points. Orbicular small, 

 round, pale centered. Reniform large, vague, sometimes with a few 

 blackish scales inferiorly. T. a. line perpendicular, undulate ; t. p. line 

 even. Abdomen and hind wings above, very pale silky yellowish • beneath 

 a little darker, the latter with orange spot and median and terminal lines ; 

 fringes concolorous. Fore wings with line and dot faintly shown. Ex- 

 pa? is e 30 to 31 m. m. 



ARGYNNIS MYRINA AND ITS ALLEGED ABNORMAL 



PECULIARITIES. 



BY W. H. EDWARDS, COALBURGH, W. VA. 



In the Am. Nat, Sept., 1872, Mr. Scudder published an essay entitled 

 " The Curious History of a Butterfly,'' in which it is stated that in two 

 N. American species of the " genus Brenthis," namely, myrina and 

 bellona, occurs a phenomenon considered by the author to be quite unique 

 among butterflies : there being two sets of individuals, each following its 

 own cycle of changes, apparently with as little to do with the other set as 

 if it were a different species ; each set having its own distinct seasons 

 and thus giving rise to the apparition of two or three successive broods 

 in the course of the year. At the very end of the season one of these 

 sets, which the author calls the " aestival," lays eggs which hatch in a 

 few r days ; the larvae at once commence hybernation, to awake and begin 

 to feed early the next season, attaining their growth by the end of June, 

 and emerging as butterflies about the middle of July. These butterflies 

 continue on the wing till the end of September. 



The second set, called the " vernal," hybernate as half grown cater- 

 pillars, and the butterflies from them appear about the middle of May, 

 sometimes earlier, but are hardly common before the end of May, and 

 also live till September. These lay their eggs the last of July and early 

 in August, the eggs hatch, the larvae moult twice, and beyond that, behave 

 differently, some at once entering on their hybernation, giving butterflies 



