232 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



white spot in the scarlet band on fore wings. Mr. Birchall, however, says : 

 " The white spot sometimes found on the upper surface of the scarlet 

 band is not indicative of the female sex ; it was present in about one 

 tenth of the specimens (he raised upwards of loo butterflies), was pro- 

 duced from both forms of larvae, and in about equal numbers of both 

 sexes. It varies greatly in size, in some specimens being a barely dis- 

 cernible speck." None of my butterflies, at Coalburgh, showed this white 

 spot, nor have I any example from any locality which shows it. I asked 

 Mr. Lintner to examine his specimens and report on this spot. He 

 writes : " I have but five, and one of the females has an extra white spot 

 in the band in the second median interspace." 



Atalanta is one of the few species of butterfly which are found the 

 world over. In West Virginia, there are three broods of the larvae, the 

 first in May and early June, the second in July and early August, the third 

 late in September, and the butterflies from the last larvae hibernate, hiding 

 probably in hollow trees, crevices of outhouses and barns, perhaps among 

 rocks, ready to come forth in warm days of winter or early in the spring. 

 I always see them about the wild plum blossoms, which are almost the 

 earliest of the year. In two or three years of the last fifteen, it has been 

 an easy matter to find the caterpillars in considerable numbers, but the 

 present season, 1882, has been remarkable over all for their great abund- 

 ance. I brought in, one day with another, in June, at least 150, and 

 could have had a thousand. We have here Nettles, urticae, which the 

 books mention as the food plant of this species, but the False Nettle, 

 Boehmeria cylindrica, is almost invariably selected by Atalanta % for 

 depositing her eggs. Grapta Comma feeds on the same plant in preference 

 to nettles, and sometimes G. Jnterrogationis larvae are found on it also. 

 The winter of 1881-82 was exceedingly mild, and apparently the mildness 

 was the cause of great destruction of hibernating butterfly larvae and 

 chrysalids, in this section. Experiments show that larvae of Argynnis 

 and Satyrus kepi at a low artificial temperature through the winter months 

 are healthy, and it is to be presumed that mild weather, which allows but 

 semi-torpidity, and more or less activity, must be disastrous in many 

 cases. Besides, a mild winter encourages predaceous insects, spiders, 

 birds, etc., which destroy larvae and chrysalids. Certainly butterflies were 

 never so scarce since I have collected, as in the season just past, and many 

 species usually very common here were altogether wanting. In the case 

 of hibernating imagos, a mild winter may not be unfavorable for their 



