136 THE COMMONER BUTTERFLIES. 



Caterpillar. — Head grass-green with black dots. Body naked, 

 pilose, grass-green with a faint dorsal line and a white stigmatal 

 stripe, which is tracked through the middle by a discontinuous 

 thread of yellow or red and followed beneath by scattered dusky 

 markings, sometimes collected in the middle of the segments into 

 inky spots; whole body covered with raised points. Length 1^ 

 inches. 



Chrysalis. — Body not bent in the middle, the wing-cases but 

 little protuberant; frontal horn short conical, the colors on either 

 side of its lateral ridge contrasted; color of body pea-green, ver- 

 miculate with pallid and having a yellow stigmatal band. Length 

 I inch. 



This is a wide-spread and abundant western and southern 

 species, in our district rarely found east of Ohio (though it 

 has been taken even in Maine), with habits like those of 

 the preceding species, but more active in flight and more 

 often flying liigh in the air. In our district it is triple- 

 brooded, with seasons much as in the preceding species or 

 perhaps a trifle later, and is said to hibernate both as a 

 caterpillar and as a butterfly. The eggs closely resemble 

 those of E. phUodice but have less numerous cross lines, 

 and hatch in from four to nine days. The caterjoillar 

 feeds on clover, and the chrysalis hangs from nine to 

 fifteen days. 



This butterfly is remarkable for the extraordinary variety 

 of forms which it assumes, a brief account of which will be 

 found in the Introduction, page 19. 



A third species of the genus, E. interior, closely resembling E. 

 phUodice and sometimes mistaken for it, is found in high northern 

 regions, is abundant on the northern shore of Lake Superior, and has 

 occasionally been taken in northern New England. 



