Vol. 33, pp. 35-36 July 24, 1920 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



NOTES ON THE LIFE HISTORY OF EUREMA LISA 

 (BOISDUVAL AND LECONTE). 



BY ARETAS A. SAUNDERS. 



The notes on which this paper is based were made nineteen 

 years ago. I have withheld them from publication mainly 

 because of the fact that when they were made I was but a boy 

 in high school, knowing nothing of how such things might be 

 published. Since then my interests have been ornithological 

 rather then entomological, and the notes have lain almost 

 forgotten among a stack of other papers. Having recently un- 

 earthed them, and being convinced of their accuracy and im- 

 portance, I venture to submit them. 



Discussing the life history of the Little Sulphur Butterfly (Eurema lisa) 

 Scudder, after giving his experiences in raising it, says: 1 "It scarcely 

 seems possible that the earliest produce of the second brood can reach 

 maturity in season out-of-doors to give birth to butterflies before such 

 cold frosty nights would come as would kill the newly emerged butter- 

 flies. Still it would appear that it is probably by this small chance of 

 life that this butterfly maintains its foothold in the warmer nooks of 

 New England." That this probability is fact, and that the chances are 

 greater than Scudder supposed, are the points which I believe my notes 

 reveal. 



On August 10, 1900, at New Haven, Conn., I followed a female Little 

 Sulphur as it laid its eggs, and secured eight of the latter. They had 

 been laid on leaves of the Partridge Pea (Cassia Chamaecrista) . I up- 

 rooted a small plant, with one of the eggs on it, took it home and potted 

 it, that my caterpillars might have fresh food. I placed the plant and 

 eggs on the sill of an open window, where they might have conditions 

 as much like out-of-doors as possible, and proceeded to watch them and 



i Everyday Butterflies, pp. 349-350. 



6— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. 33, 1920. (35) 



