THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 191 



myrina and bellona were rather abundant. The females of both species 

 were more or less worn and were heavy with eggs. I shut up half a dozen 

 of each species in a muslin bag, which was drawn over the top of a flower 

 pot in which I had set plants of wild violet. Between the 20th and 25th 

 inst. both species laid many eggs, and these hatched in about five days. 

 I lost nearly all the bellona eggs by mailing them to Coalburgh, but three 

 which I sent Miss Peart for drawings gave larvae, and in due time the 

 larvae became chrysalids and yielded butterflies on or before the 1st of 

 September. 



But as I kept the larvae of myri?ia, my observations relate to them 

 only. These grew very rapidly., moulted five times, and the first of them 

 reached chrysalis on the 27th of August, about thirty days from the egg. 

 The butterfly emerged on the 3rd of September, and was a female. Next 

 day five emerged, three $ and two $ (I mention the sex to show that 

 the females emerge as early as the males, and this is so in all species of 

 butterflies which I have made observations on, except one, Apatura clyton, 

 and in this the male has been found to appear about a week in advance of 

 the female). The other butterflies emerged at intervals till September 

 9th, by which time twenty-five had appeared. Not one of this brood 

 of larvae hybernated after the third moult, or at all, and all the chrysalids 

 gave butterflies. On opening the abdomens of the newly emerged 

 females, they were found full of nearly mature eggs. These eggs were 

 soft, but nearly or quite full sized, and distinctly ribbed, which would not 

 be so if they were not almost ripe for deposition. I have never found 

 this to be the case in the larger species of Argynnis, there being so far as 

 I have examined, and I have done this in very many instances, no 

 appearance of the egg for weeks after the females are on the wing. But 

 in some other butterflies, as Papilio ajax, the eggs are almost ready to 

 deposit when the female issues from the chrysalis, and it is certain that 

 she deposits them within a few days — say a week — from chrysalis. 



So far I have given my own observations upon myrina. Adding to 

 them such as are related by Mr. Scudder, and not involving the error as 

 to a long period of time being required to mature the eggs, and the 

 history of the species resolves itself into this shape. 



The butterfly of the fall brood emerges from chrysalis about the 1st of 

 September, lays eggs on or before the 15th, the larvae hatch between the 

 20th and the 24th, and go at once into hybernation, to awake in May, and 

 reach chrysalis about the middle of June, and the butterfly about the 25th 



