122 The Ottawa Naturalist^ [August 



up the probable cost of the trip, announced in large head-lines in 



the Albany papers, that the price of butterflies' eggs had risen to 



•' Sixteen Dollars a dozen." In very truth, many kinds would 



be cheap at that. 



This butterfly appears twice during the year. The first brood 



flies early in June or even late in May, and continues on the wing 



through June and often into July. It lays eggs in June, which 



hatch in seven or eight days, the caterpillars live in that stage 



for about a month and the chrysalis continues about ten days. 



Sometimes these figures must be shortened, for though the second 



brood of butterflies is normally an August brood, it sometimes 



appears by the middle of July or even earlier. The second brood 



lays eggs in August, but whether these hatch before spring, or 



whether it is the caterpillar or chrysalis which hibernates is not 

 yet known. 



The turban-shaped and most elegantly chased eggs are laid 

 on the leaves of lupines, usually on the under side, and on the 

 stalks. The caterpillar, which is slug-shaped, eats its way out at 

 the side of the egg ; it has a remarkably extensible head and neck 

 and procures its food in a curious way, at least when young, 

 showing its relationship to some of its brethren which are fruit- 

 borers ; biting a hole through the lower cuticle of the leaf no 

 larger than its own minute head, it devours all the interior of the 

 succulent leaf it can reach by pushing its head through this hole 

 in every direction and leaves the eaten leaf with a blistered look, 

 this blister being eight or ten times larger than the hole by which 

 it is entered. Later in life, it devours also the cuticle on which 

 it rests while feeding, but also devours such softer parts of the leaf 

 between the integuments as it can reach by its protrusile head, 

 and it will bore the softer parts of a cut stem down to the rind as 

 far as it can reach. 



The caterpillar is attended by ants according to Mr. Saunders, 

 who first discovered it. He was "surprised by seeing several 

 ants actively running about the leaf" on which he found his first 

 caterpillar, "and repeatedly over the body of the caterpillar, 

 without disturbing it in the least." The discovery of other cater- 

 pillars was indeed "made comparatively easy from the invariable 

 attendance of these active attendants." They attend them to lap 

 up the drops of fluid secreted by glands opening externally near 

 the hinder end of these caterpillars, and of which, as of the honey- 

 dew Aphides, the ants are extremely fond ; so fond indeed that 

 they guard the caterpillars from the approach of insect enemies, 

 and thus the gain rs mutual. 



