90 THE COMMONER BUTTERFLIES. 



are laid in masses close together in several superposed layers 

 or heaps to the number of several hundred on the under 

 side of leaves of the food-plant near the summit; they 

 hatch in about six days. The caterpillars feed upon nettles 

 and are social in the first half of their life, at once, without 

 devouring the egg-shell, climbing to the summit of the 

 2:>lant, lining it with a web beneath which they swarm; 

 when half grown they disperse and live more openly or in 

 partial shelters, as where three or four may be found to- 

 gether in incompletely closed leaves of nettle, open at tip 

 but closed at base, by whicli a reversed pocket is formed 

 within which they live when not feeding. The chrysalids 

 usually hang for ten or twelve days. The butterfly has a 

 lively flight, is found by roadsides in Canada and the North- 

 ern United States as far south as the latitude of New York 

 City, or higher than that in the Mississippi Valley. It is 

 triple-brooded, hibernating in both the butterfly and the 

 chrysalis state, in the former under piled stones. The 

 wintering butterflies come out while the snow still lies on the 

 ground, and in April the wintering chrysalids give birth 

 to the enclosed butterflies which may be found on the wing 

 through May. Eggs are first laid late in April, and by 

 about the middle of June the butterflies from caterjiillars 

 of the same season begin to fly; by the end of July a sec- 

 ond, and by the first of September a third brood of butter- 

 flies appears, though some of the later chrysalids continue 

 ov^r the winter; even as late as November the butterfly 

 may sometimes be seen on the wing. 



13. Genus Euvanessa. 



EUVANESSA ANTIOPA— THE MOURNING CLOAK. 



(Vanessa aiitiopa.) 



Butterfly. — Upper surface of wings rich maroon, deepening 

 into black next the straw yellow, black-dusted, outer margin, and 

 in the black enlivened by small dashes of blue. Under surface 



