120 THE COMMONER BUTTERFLIES. 



fuscous, the reticulation darker ; abdomen scarcely wider than 

 the thorax, its hairs half as long as the segments. Length fully 

 i inch. 



This pretty butterfly is widely distributed throughout 

 nearly all our district, failing in the northernmost parts 

 and nowhere very abundant; it has an active nervous 

 flight and is to be looked for in the vicinity of thickets. 

 It is single-brooded, hibernating in the egg state. The 

 eggs are laid on the terminal twigs of the food-plant under 

 the lea of some prominence like a leaf-scar and hatch early 

 in May. The food-plants of the caterpillar are various: 

 thorn, shadbush, and other Rosaceous plants, the common 

 swamp blueberry and doubtless other species of Vaccinium, 

 oaks and willows; Vaccinium and shadbusli are probably 

 its favorites. At first the young caterpillar eats little holes 

 through the leaf; afterwards eats holes or bites the edge 

 indifferently, or it may bore into fruit like plums and 

 extract the softer parts; it matures late in June, the 

 chrysalis state lasts from twelve to sixteen days, and the 

 first butterflies appear early in July, sometimes not until 

 the middle of the month, and remain on the wing but a 

 very short time, being rarely seen in August. 



THECLA CALANUS— THE BANDED HAIR STREAK. 



(Thecla falacer, Thecla inorata.) 



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

 wings with a short thread-like tail. Upper surface of wings 

 blackish brown. Under surface slate-brown, the disk crossed by 

 four subcontinuous white threads in two distant pairs, the inner 

 pair brief, the outer crossing the wing with tolerable regularity 

 but in a broken fashion, each pair including a darker ground ; 

 besides which are the marginal markings peculiar to the genus. 

 Expanse 1\ inches. 



Ca,terpillar. — Onisciform. Head minute, very pale green. 

 Body naked, pilose, nearly equal and tapering but little behind, 

 bright grass-green, with lighter and darker green longitudinal 



