FAMILY SKIPPERS. 157 



raeic segment black, edged in front with red or orange and red on 

 the sides below. Length more than 1 inch. 



Chrysalis. — Rather slender-bodied, the abdomen (exclusive of 

 tail-piece) shorter than the rest of the body, theprothoracic spir- 

 acle with elevated posterior lip, the tongue-case not extending 

 beyond the wings; fusco-luteous speckled profusely with blackish 

 fuscous, becoming blackish transverse broken bands on the 

 abdomen. Length f inch. 



This butterfly occurs throughout our district unless we 

 except the eastern i^roviuces, from which it has not yet 

 been recorded; it is found in open fields and meadows and 

 flies with extreme rapidity and uncertain direction, gener- 

 ally two or three feet only above the ground. It Avinters 

 as a chrysalis and is double-brooded, the first brood appear- 

 ing the last week in May, becoming abundant in less than 

 a week, and not wholly disappearing until some time, often 

 late, in July; the second- brood is much less abundant than 

 the first, appears in August, usually not until the middle 

 of the month and flies till the middle of September or later. 

 The eggs, which are subglobular but Avith a broad base and 

 with moderately low vertical ribs to the number of fifteen, 

 are very pale green, almost white, and are laid on the under 

 side of leaves, singly, and hatch in from five to eleven, 

 generally about six, days. The caterpillar feeds on almost 

 any Leguminous plant, but appears to prefer clover and 

 bush clover (Lespedeza); on emerging the caterpillar 

 usually devours about half its egg-shell and then travels to 

 another leaf to prepare its nest, which it makes by cutting 

 two parallel channels inwards from the edge of the leaf and 

 folding over and securing by silken strands the fiap thus 

 formed ; later in life it makes a larger nest from one or 

 more leaves after the habit of Epargyreus; it is very clean- 

 ly, always ejecting its excrement outside its nest with a 

 snap which sends it to a distance. The chrysalis state in 

 summer lasts about twenty days. 



