THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 49 



the August brood only about a fortnight. What becomes of butterflies at 

 night ? I had often asked. One evening after dark, I saw a P. Oleracea 

 resting with closed wings on a stalk of grass. I threw it into the air re- 

 peatedly, but it would not fly ; it merel\- fluttered to the ground, and made 

 no resistance to m\- taking it up again. 



Vanessa Milberti. Godart. The first butterfly that gladdens our eyes 

 in spring, appearing on sunny days in the middle of April, but in no con- 

 siderable number in May. Then it becomes by far the most abundant of 

 all our butterflies, more common than even the Garden White, and that in 

 every season. It seems to survive the long and severe winter. I once 

 found one, half-torpid, on the 15th October, resting, with closed wings, on 

 a stone /// the midst of a loose heap 3 and a gentleman presented me with 

 another, living, but torpid, which had fallen from a loft on the 5th of April. 

 This last was certainly a survivor of the winter. 



About the middle of June we see the tops of the growing nettles covered 

 with unsightly webs, which are inhabited by families of the little black 

 caterpillars of Milberti. They live in society some time after they are 

 hatched : but as they grow up they separate into groups of four or five on 

 each plant. As they are not long eating the choice leaves of one nettle, 

 they colonize to others, leaving tlieir deserted habitations mere leafless 

 stalks, covered with the dense and cloth-like web. and with the excrement 

 and sloughed skins of the caterpillars. 



When full grown they have a rather repulsive appearance, being black 

 above, dingy green below, with toothed spines. But the beauty of the 

 chrysalis atones for the ugliness of the caterpillar : for the numerous sharp 

 points on the brown segments are of a most brilliant gold, like polished 

 metal. Occasionally we see examples of more than usual splendour ; the 

 abdominal rings of a dull red, and the whole fore parts of polished gold, 

 tinged with green. Alas ! it is a fatal beauty ! for all such specimens are 

 punctured by parasitic flies, the terrible •' Long Stings ;" and from every 

 one there are sure to emerge one or more of these rascally ichneumons. 



V. Antiopa-, Linn. Rather rare, flying round the tops of willows. 

 Fine specimens measure 31^ inches in expanse ; the border of the wings, 

 which in European examples is buff, is in Newfoundland examples pure 

 white, speckled with blackish : at le'-ist in the female. 



Pyraineis Ataianta, Linn. The Red Admiral is sufficiently abundant 

 /I.;, with us. As soon as summer is fully set in our gardens are gay with this 



