226 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



NOTES ON DANAIS ARCHIPPUS, Fabr. 



BY MISS EMILY M. MORTON, NEW WINDSOR, N. Y. 



Having been requested by my friend, Mr. Wm. H. Edwards, to make 

 observations on Danais Archippus during the seasons of 1887 and 1888, 

 and subsequently having written to him the result of such observations, 

 he requested me to publish in the Canadian Entomologist the substance 

 of what I had already written him in my letter. I wrote out a paper about 

 July 5th, which, however, was lost in the mails, and the paper now sent is 

 a partial copy of the original, though somewhat altered, as the first was 

 over four months old. 



All my observations were made in New Windsor, N. Y., which town 

 is situated on the banks of the Hudson, directly opposite the hills which 

 bound the northwestern borders of Connecticut. 



Archippus is not more rare with us than many of our hybernating 

 butterflies, and seems to me in no way abnormal. 



It has always appeared when a certain Persian-lilac bush blooms, fly- 

 ing over and alighting on the blossoms. 



Last summer (1887), the first hybernators came, as has already been 

 stated by Mr. Edwards, May 3rd and 4th ; this season everything being 

 later with cold rains and high winds, the lilacs did not blossom out until 

 May 10th, when Danais Archippus, (how I love the dear old familar 

 names !) allured by the first warm sunny day, and the perfume of the 

 opening blossoms came forth to drink of the nectar, and having refreshed 

 herself, hastened away to deposit her eggs before her few remaining days 

 are gone, and she is gathered to her forefathers. This butterfly could not 

 have been a " colonist," for nothing so frail could have flown any distance 

 in the high wind and beating rain of the preceding day, and it was not 

 later than 9.30 a. m., the flowers and leaves still heavy with rain, so 

 she must have come from a very short distance — possibly from the ruins of 

 an old shed a hundred yards or so from the bush. 



Has any one ever found a hybernating Archippus ? Yet, we all know 

 they do hybernate. 



In the earlier days of my collecting, many and many a stump has been 

 peeled of its bark, and even split to satisfy the craving for something new, 

 yet never an Archippus has rewarded the most untiring search in that direc- 

 tion, though once, and in early May too, a Vanessa Antiopa, torpid, 



