FAMILY BRUSH-FOOTED BUTTERFLIES. 87 



formed as large as a pigeon's Qgg] only in the last few 

 days of their life do they leave the nest and devour the 

 entire leaf. The chrysalis, sometimes formed within the 

 final nest, hangs from ten to twelve days. The butterfly 

 is a vigorous flyer and is found in open fields. It is double- 

 brooded in the North, hibernating as a butterfly and also 

 to some extent as a chrysalis. The hibernating butterflies 

 leave their winter quarters about the middle of May and 

 the chrysalids give forth their contents a few weeks later; 

 eggs are laid early in June, and from the middle of July 

 to the end of the first week in August the butterflies of 

 the first brood (proper) of the season make their appear- 

 ance. Eggs are again laid in August, and the second 

 brood of butterflies flies from the middle of September to 

 the end of the season. As the butterfly is long-lived, indi- 

 viduals may be seen on the wing throughout the entire 

 season from the middle of May to the end of October. In 

 the South the number of broods is certainly greater, and 

 the winter is passed in the butterfly state, if not also in 

 the chrysalis. 



VANESSA ATALANTA— THE RED ADMIRAL. 

 (Cynthia atalanta, Pyrameis atalanta.) 



Butterfly. — Upper surface of wings purplish black, the fore 

 wings with white markings at the apex as in other species of 

 Vanessa, but also with a conspicuous, oblique, curved belt of 

 bright orange across the middle of the wing ; hind wings mar- 

 gined with the same. Under surface of hind wings greatly 

 varied with marbling and transverse wavy lineation of pale 

 brown olivaceous gray and black markings of intricate pattern, 

 including a triangular gray patch on the middle of the costal 

 border and a dusting of metallic green on a submargiual series 

 of obscure dark ocelli. Expanse 2^ inches. 



Caterpillar. — Very similar to that of V. cardtd, including 

 mediodorsal spines on first and second abdominal segments, but 

 perhaps even more variable in coloring ; usually, however, more 



