THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 223 



delayed in emerging on account of the backward season, and in a more 

 normal year I should look for them a week or ten days earlier. As I 

 approached the cinquefoil area I espied a female, and almost immediately 

 a second one. I then crossed a fence into the main body of the plant, 

 where I found the butterflies out in the largest numbers I have ever seen 

 them. I should think there were hundreds in a space of less than two 

 acres, perhaps even thousands, for they were everywhere flying about and 

 alighting upon the pretty yellow flowers of the fruticosa. A few would 

 occasionally stop on some other flower in the vicinity, but the cinquefoil 

 flowers were evidently the favourites. The butterflies were mostly fresh, 

 and many of them looked as if they were just out of the chrysalids. 

 Males greatly predominated, of which I should think there might have 

 been as many as forty to one female. I watched particularly for signs of 

 mating. Early in the afternoon I saw a female with three male 

 attendants, and later on between half-past three and five I saw seven or 

 eight females each with a male near-by, and in two instances found the 

 male flirting his abdomen over to the female, but in no case did I observe 

 any sexual union. 



After four p.m. the butterflies began to take up a position on the 

 leaves of the weeds and shrubs other than the cinquefoil, with their wings 

 outstretched flat, the upper surfaces exposed to the sun's rays, their heads 

 as a rule directed away from the rays. As the sun settled lower, the 

 cinquefoil flowers were less frequented, finally became deserted, and more 

 of the butterflies were observed sunning themselves in the manner noted. 

 Later they gradually disappeared, evidently dropping into the thick mat 

 of. vegetation, until when I left about half-past six only one or two could 

 be seen. I located a number of females during the late afternoon by 

 discovering that several males wouid cluster upon the same main upright 

 plant stem (particularly of a species of birch), when upon closer examina- 

 tion a female would be found among them. The males invariably fly 

 upward into the net when it is placed over them, the females on the 

 contrary give a flop, landing lower down in the plant carpet. Later on I 

 gave up the use of the net almost entirely, for I found that the butterflies 

 were so tame that all that was needed was to place the open end of the 

 poison tube down over them as they were seated on the cinquefoil flowers. 

 On the wing one learns to distinguish the sexes readily by the flight alone. 

 The males fly more quickly, hither and thither, with less directness, while 

 the females are slower and take a straighter path. The purple colour of 

 the male, even at several feet away, lets his sex be known. 



