FAMILY BliUSH-FOOrED BUTTERFLIES. ^^^ 



butterflies developing from these last do not lay eggs the 

 same season (unless possihl}^ in the warmer south), but 

 migrate southward at the end of the season, to return again 

 the next spring. North, therefore, of the farthest points 

 to which the wintering butterflies have journeyed in the 

 sj^ring, there appears to be but one brood a year, south of 

 it two, and in the extreme south possibly more. 



As a further proof of the transcendent powers of flight 

 of this butterfly, it may be mentioned that it has been 

 seen at sea five hundred miles from land and has within 

 thirty years spread over nearly all the islands of the 

 Pacific and even to Australia and Java. Undoubtedly 

 carried in the first place hy trading or other vessels to 

 the Hawaiian Islands and thence to Micronesia, it has un- 

 questionably Jtow7i from island to island many hundreds 

 of miles apart. It has also appeared at various times 

 in different places on the sea-coast of Europe, here also 

 probably transported accidentally by vessel. In 1885, for 

 instance, no less than nine specimens were captured in 

 four different counties of England, and in 188G it was 

 reported at different points from England to Gibraltar. 



The egg is long oval in shape, with over twenty low up- 

 right ridges and many cross lines, is of a pale green color, 

 and is laid singly on the food-plant of the caterpillar 

 (various kinds of milk-weed, especially the commonest 

 kind, AscJepiafi cornuti) and usually upon the under sur- 

 face of the tender upturned apical leaves near the middle. 

 It hatches in about four days, the caterpillar feeds quite 

 exposed upon the leaves, generally resting, however, upon 

 the under surface, and takes two or three weeks to grow 

 to its full size. In New England the eggs are usually laid 

 during July, and belated caterpillars may be found even 

 in September. The chrysalis hangs from nine to fifteen 

 days. 



But the chief interest attaching to this butterfly is that 



