100 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



larva is said to feed on oak and Cynoglossum Morisoni." Of Fersiiis, 

 " The larva, according to Scudder, feeds on willow, poplar and Lespedeza 

 capitata." Of Icelus, " The early stages of this common species are not 

 known." Mr. Scudder gives the food plants of three species, in " But- 

 terflies." On p. 114 we read: " The caterpillars hibernate full fed, and 

 only change to chrysalis as winter's icy bonds .begin to break," and on 

 same page is given a cut of larva and chrysalis of JV. Enniiis, a species 

 unknown to me, and so far as I am aware, undescribed. Dr. Harris 

 describes the caterpillar of Juvcnalis as if he had seen it, but the 

 chrysalis from one of Abbot's figures, and says : " Mr. Abbot informs us 

 that in summer the skipper leaves the chrysalis in nine days, but the 

 autumnal brood continues in the chrysalis state throughout the winter." 

 For Brizo, he refers to Boisduval and LeConte's figures of caterpillar and 

 chrysalis, and these are copied after Abbot. Abbot says of Juvenalis : 

 " One of them spun itself up July 26th, changed 27th, and came out Aug. 

 5th. Some that enclosed themselves in Sept. and Oct. did not come out 

 till the 22nd of March following." Abbot, in Ins. Ga., figures no Nison- 

 iades but Juvenalis. His larvae behaved very differently from this of 

 Icelus, or from the account given by Mr. Scudder. By the time Icelus was 

 hibernating, the Juvenalis had pupated, and the late brood, Sept. and 

 Oct., Abbot says, pupated and passed the winter in chrysalis. 



The only satisfactory description of a Nisoniades caterpillar published 

 is that of lucilius by Prof Lintner, Ent. Cont., 4, 67. He in fact 

 describes all stages, egg, four moults and chrysalis. His larva fed on 

 Aquilegia Canadensis, pupated 6th August, and the imago came out i2tli 

 August. Two other larvae pupated 8th and 9th August, and both gave 

 butterflies on 15th of same month. Mr. Lintner says that there are two 

 annual broods of the butterfly, and possibly a third. So far as I know, 

 the references to the life-history of our Nisoniades above given embrace 

 everything that has been published. 



The behavior of Icelus is therefore peculiar to itself so far as anything 

 is known of the genus in this country ; the larva going into lethargy so 

 early in the season, the last of July, and that when fully mature and when 

 pupation might naturally be expected ; spending eight months in that con- 

 dition, eating nothing in the spring, but pupating several weeks after mild 

 weather had come. There might have been an earlier brood than the one 

 of July, but probably there was no later one, and the two, if there be- 

 two, must be the limit. , 



