186 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



another, sometimes several patches upon the same leaf. On page 152, it 

 is also stated that the species is triple-brooded in Canada. Finally, Prof. 

 Fernald, But. Maine, 1884, briefly describes the mature larva, adding that 

 the spines are arranged as in V. Antiopa, which, as I shall show, is in 

 some degree erroneous. That is all I have been able to find of the history 

 of this common butterfly, and that is very little 



The egg of Milberti, in shape and ornamentation, is like that of 

 Antiopa. The young larva is like the young of that species also in every 

 particular, so far as I can discover. Every hair in the one has its coun- 

 terpart in the other. Of the second stage of Antiopa I cannot now 

 speak, but of the third and subsequent stages, comparing them with Mil- 

 berti, there is a difference in regard to the dorsal row of spines. In 

 Antiopa these begin at segment 7 (head being No. i) and end on 12, 

 whereas in Milberti, as in Vanessa Urtica and Polychloros, also in all our 

 species of Grapta observed, the dorsal spines begin at 5 and run to 12. (A 

 table of the spines of Vanessa and allied genera may be found in Weis- 

 mann's Studies, English Ed., p. 448, with interesting remarks on the 

 relationship of all these species). 



I received 7th May, 1885, from C. F. McGlashan, Esq., Truckee, Cal., 

 a great cluster of eggs, on nettle leaf, mailed 30th April. There seemed 

 to be about 200 eggs, but they were piled so that it was not possible to 

 count them. The bottom layer was right side up, and the eggs square on 

 their bases, so far as could be seen ; at each layer above there was wider 

 departure from this, till at the top the eggs were more or less on their 

 sides. In the thickest part the cluster was five layers deep. These eggs 

 failed to hatch. On 2nd July, the same year, I received three similar 

 clusters of eggs from Mr. H. Roy Gilbert, of Rochester, N. Y., piled up 

 in same way. I had a large plant of Urtica dioica in flower pot, the 

 branches nearly two feet long, standing at an open window in my room. 

 On the upper side of a leaf of this I pinned one cluster. In about six 

 hours thereafter the larvs were hatching, and a few hours later had 

 gathered at the base of the leaf, on upper side, and were nibbling at and 

 through the leaf There was no web or shelter. The next day the larvae 

 were on same leaf, and had eaten it almost wholly, leaving the frame. 

 There was still no web. The same afternoon they left this leaf, and had 

 got on the end of the next branch and were eating the terminal leaves, 

 still without web or any shelter. They were in a dense mass, and when 

 not feeding, their heads were all protruded, and at the least alarm, as the 



