86 THE COMMONER BUTTERFLIES. 



premarginal series of spots on the hind wing becomes a more or 

 less continuous band with the bhie pupil of an ocellus in two of 

 the interspaces. The under surface of the hind wings is smoky 

 brow'n, with a conspicuous tracery of whitish cross lines on the 

 basal half, and a broad, irregular, mesial white band, beyond 

 which are two moderately large, exquisitely formed, round pea- 

 cock-eye spots. Expanse 2-2| inches. 



Caterpillar. — Head black, without spines on summits. Body 

 spinous, velvety black, with delicate, transverse, yellowish lines 

 next the incisures, and at the front base of the supralateral 

 spines, from the second abdominal segment backward, a con- 

 spicuous, round, silvery- white spot ; spines, including a medio- 

 dorsal one on both first and second abdominal segments, black ; 

 hairs short. Length 1^ inches. 



Chrysalis. — Didl grayish white marked with brown or oliva- 

 ceous, sometimes golden green marked with purple, the darker 

 markings in part forming an irregular broad band along the 

 sides from one end of the body to the other ; tubercles orange- 

 tipped, the supralateral series, including one on the eighth ab- 

 dominal segment, bluntly conical. Length f inch. 



The eggs, which are barrel-shaped, slightly liigher than 

 broad, with thirteen to sixteen thin high vertical ribs and 

 yellowish green, are laid singly on the npper surface of 

 the leaves of the food-plant and crowded down between 

 the hairs which cover it; their period has never been re- 

 corded. The caterpillars feed almost exclusively on 

 Gnaphalieae, a group of Composite plants nearly allied to 

 the thistles, and particularly on "everlasting,^^ Gnaphalium, 

 but they have also been found on a number of other j^lants, 

 including thistles. ,0n emerging from the egg, they bur- 

 row beneath the silken hairs of the food-j)lant, bite them 

 off and, miugling them with much silk, form at once a 

 dense Avhite mat; beneath this they devour the j'^aren- 

 chyma and then enlarge the nest, never leaving it for food 

 but enclosing larger and larger areas, until finally many 

 leaves are drawn together, the bitten-oif inflorescence of 

 the Gnaphalium interwoven with the web, and a nest 



