126 THE COMMONER BUTTERFLIES. 



feed, tucked in between the flowers well out of sight, and 

 hatch in from four to eight days, according to the season. 

 The plants used as food by the caterpillars are extremely 

 various, those already known belonging to as many as fif- 

 teen different families, but their principal food is thought 

 to be Cornus in the early spring, Cimicifuga in June, and 

 Actinomeris later in the season, a plant in, or soon to be 

 in, flower being chosen by the parent; the caterpillars eat 

 buds, flowers, and leaves indiscrimiiuitely, but preferably 

 bore into the calyx of flowers and eat out the heart; they 

 are accompanied by ants, which tend them carefully and 

 caress them with their antennae to induce them to emit 

 from their abdominal glands the honeyed secretions thence 

 exuded and which the ants lap up. The butterfly is one 

 of the first to appear fresh from the chrysalis in the spring; 

 the earliest (form lucia) generally appear about the middle 

 of April, and in the first week of May the numbers are 

 materially increased by the advent of the form violacea, 

 and both fly together through this month, further accom- 

 panied, after the middle of May, by the third form, neglec- 

 ta, so that in the last half of this month all may be taken 

 together. In June, lucia is rarely seen and the others dis- 

 appear one after the other; but in July the second brood 

 proper appears, consisting wholly of neglecta, and contin- 

 ues to emerge from the chrysalis all through this month; 

 it is not so abundant, however, as the preceding, though 

 butterflies may be found even into September. The cater- 

 pillars of the second brood when full-fed go into chrysalis, 

 in which state they pass the winter; the summer chrysalids 

 give birth to butterflies generally in ten or eleven days. 

 The above statement is made for southern New England 

 only; there is probably some variation for these dates for 

 places with cooler or warmer climates, for some points re- 

 garding which see the Introduction. 



