224 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ON THE LARVAL HABITS OF LIMENITIS ARTHEMIS (WITH 



ITS CO-FORM PROSERPINA), AND ALSO OF 



L. DISIPPUS. 



[From Advance Sheets of Part VIII., Vol. 2, of Butterflies of North America.] 



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



The larvse of Arthemis feed on the leaves of willow, aspen, bass- 

 wood, and, it is said, on thorn. In the Catskills, the eggs are laid the last 

 days of July or early in August, on young trees, and but one egg upon 

 one leaf. This is placed near the tip, and the newly hatched larva eats 

 away the leaf on both sides of the midrib. When at rest, it is to be 

 found on the stripped portion of the rib, and is easily discovered by this 

 habit. When two larvae are hatched on one leaf, as happens when two 

 eggs have been laid in confinement, Mr. Mead has noticed that one of 

 them occupies the midrib, while the other rests on a perch constructed by 

 itself from the side of the leaf. This perch, he says, is nearly a quarter 

 of an inch long and about one fiftieth of an inch in diameter, irregularly 

 cylindrical and composed of frass and small bits of the leaf, fastened 

 together and covered with grayish silk. 



Limenitis Disippus has in all respects larval habits similar to Arthemis, 

 and as I have often watched the construction of the perch in that species, 

 one account will apply to both. The end of the rib is no sooner laid 

 bare than it is coated and wound with silk, and to the extremity are fixed 

 grains of larval excrement, at first but two or three, placed one after the 

 other in line. These are bound together and to the rib, and being small 

 as grains of rifle powder, they form a continuation of about the same 

 dimensions as the rest of the perch, and seem effectual to prevent curling 

 as the rib dries. As the larva grows, the process is continued until this 

 artificial portion will measure five or six tenths of an inch, and makes a 

 stout, irregular cylinder, the entire perch reaching about one and a half 

 inches. It is constantly strengthened by additions of silk, the larva almost 

 invariably, as it goes back and forth from its feeding ground, adding 

 threads and patching the weak places. On the perch the larva, in its 

 younger stages, that is, before hybernation, always rests, going to the leaf 

 for food at short intervals. It occupies the middle of the perch and its 

 usual attitude is a twist, the ventral legs clasping ; but the anterior half of 

 the body is bent down by the side of and somewhat under the perch. If 



