FAMILY GOSSAMER-WINGED BUTTERFLIES. 119 



the caterpillar feeds, and prefers a height of about twenty 

 feet from the ground, near the tops of the cedars, where 

 its active play with its fellows is a very pretty sight. The 

 insect is partly single-, partly double-brooded, and hibernates 

 in the chrysalis state; the earliest butterflies appear about 

 the first of May and continue on the wing throughout 

 June. The eggs, which are turban-shaped with a broad 

 saucer-like depression above, pale bluish green in color and 

 studded with knobs, are laid singly near the tips of the 

 blossoming twigs, tucked into chinks, and hatch in about 

 a week. The caterpillar is of precisely the color of the 

 cedar, feeds on the tips, its head while feeding covered by 

 the segment behind as by a cowl, and takes about five 

 weeks to mature. The caterpillars begin to go into 

 chrysalis toward the end of June; some of these chrysalids 

 hibernate, while others give out the butterfly in about a 

 fortnight, the new brood of butterflies, much less abundant 

 than the first, appearing toward the end of July and con- 

 tinuing through August. 



27. Genus Thecla. 



THECLA IIPAROPS— THE STRIPED HAIR STREAK. 



(Thecla strigosa.) 



Butterfly. — Fore wings of male with a discal stigma ; hind 

 wings with a short thread-like tail and the indication of a supple- 

 mentary one. Upper surface of wings blackish brown. Under 

 surface dark brown, the disk crossed by four subequidistant 

 more or less complete and subcontinuous white threads shifted in 

 position below the median veins, besides the red, blue, and black, 

 white-edged, lunulate marginal markings common to the genus. 

 Expanse li inches. 



Caterpillar.— Onisciform. Head minute, pale brown with a 

 transverse facial black belt. Body naked, pilose, grass-green, 

 very faintly and obliquely striped with greenish yellow. Length 

 nearly I inch. 



Chrysalis. — Dull yellowish brown, dotted with brownish 



