THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 227 



skin and clings to it so as to support itself 'while it withdraws its tail from the 

 remainder of the skin. It is now wholly out of the skin, to which it hangs 

 suspended by nipping together the rings of its body ; but as the chrysalis is 

 much shorter than the caterpillar, it is yet at some distance from the tuft of 

 si/h, to which it must climb. To do this, it extends tlu rings of its body as fat- 

 apart as possible, then, bending together two of them above those by which it 

 is suspended, it catches hold of the skin higher up, at the same time letting go 

 below, and by repeating this process with different rings in succession, it at 

 length reaches the tuft, 6fc." "We may see the whole process in the cater- 

 pillars of archippus," &c. Dr. Harris drew his description from nature, 

 and was too careful an observer to commit himself in a case like this 

 beyond what he thought he clearly saw. 



In Butterflies of N. America, vol. I., I gave an account of the trans- 

 formation of Grapta comma, taken strictly from my own observations. In 

 this I find no mention of the climbing by the aiJ of the successive pairs 

 of segments, described by Dr. Harris as taking place in archippus, but 

 otherwise my statement agrees substantially with his. I had previously 

 read of the transformations of butterflies in various works, and so was doubt- 

 less prepared to receive the common version of the mode, but I described 

 precisely what I thought I saw. I have heretofore repeatedly witnessed this 

 process in various genera, but I find by recent experience that it is impossible 

 with a single observation, or by half a dozen, to determine all the details, and 

 only by watching one point in one example and another in the next, and 

 verifying each again and again, could I feel sure that I had made myself 

 acquainted with this part of the history of a single species. I have 

 watched sixteen transformations of intcrrogationis and two of archippus, 

 during the last few days, and willdescribe at length what I have seen. It may 

 serve to show how the error spoken of originated and has been per- 

 petuated by so many observers, and for more than a century, with no sus- 

 picion of wrong till Dr. Osborne made his discovery. In interrogationis 

 the period of suspension varies from 6 to 24 hours, according to the state 

 of the weather and degree of warmth. My first observations were made 

 under a clear sky, and mercury about 8o° Far., in the middle of the day ; 

 the later ones in cool and rainy weather, with cold nights. The larva of 

 this species is suspended from a button of pink silk. At first it 

 holds itself in a circular shape, its head turned in against segments 

 11 and 12, the lowest part of the curve being at 7th. After two 

 hours, more or less (in warm weather), the curve is relaxed, and the atti- 



