BUTTERFLIES OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 93 



Another curious thing about it is its power of producing a faint 

 grating or buzzing noise. 



Seasons. — The Camberwell beauty appears with the first warm 

 days of spring, and it maj'- sometimes be seen as early as the latter 

 part of I^ebruary. Usually it is first found in numbers during the 

 first warm spell in March, and it continues on the wing in undimin- 

 ished numbers throughout April. In May its numbers decrease, and 

 it disappears in the latter half of the month. In the District indi- 

 viduals are occasionally seen flying about sheltered places in the 

 woods in December, January, and February. The butterflies of the 

 summer brood first appear about the middle, or in the latter half, 

 of June. I have a fresh siDecimen taken on August 19 that pre- 

 sumably belongs to this brood, so that emergence may take place 

 over a period of two months. But there is a possibility of a partial 

 intermediate brood here from eggs deposited very early by over- 

 wintering females. The autumn brood begins to appear very early 

 in September, and the butterflies continue to emerge until late in 

 October, flying until the approach of winter forces them into hiber- 

 nation. It is possible that some of the late emergences represent 

 young from a partial brood intermediate between the summer and 

 regular autumn broods, but this remains to be determined. 



Notes. — The National Museum contains a specimen of the aberra- 

 tion hygiaea taken in Washington by F. Burgess. The yellow bor- 

 der is extended inward over the area typically occupied by the blue 

 spots. On the hind wings the j^ellow border, the inner edge of 

 which is less strongly curved than the outer margin of the wings, 

 occupies the outer third of the wings in its widest part. On the fore 

 wings the yellow border is about half as wide as on the hind wings 

 and is heavily dusted with brown. 



Remojrhs. — This is a common butterfly everywhere in subarctic 

 North America, Europe, and Asia, ranging southward to northern 

 Florida and the highlands of Guatemala, northwestern Africa, the 

 Himala^^as, Amurland, and northern Japan. In some region,s it is 

 subject to great fluctuations in abundance from year to year, while 

 in others, as in the District, it seems to vary but little in its numbers. 



The typical form {Vanessa antiopa antiopa) is the small pale 

 far-northern form with a narrow light border that occurs in subarctic 

 and boreal regions everywhere and does not enter the United States. 

 The form found in the District is V. a. creta Verity, which is found 

 in central and southern Europe and which in America ranges from 

 eastern Canada and New England southward to northern Florida 

 and the highlands of Guatemala. 



So far as I am aware the caterpillars of this butterfly have never 

 been troublesome in the District, but in New England and elsewhere 

 they are often so abundant as to disfigure and in some cases more or 



