88 BULLETIN 15 7, U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



tion. At the same time (my earliest record is May 4, 1930) small 

 fresh males appear which have emerged from overwintering chrysa- 

 lids. Fresh individuals, increasing in size, continue to appear, and 

 by early June are often more numerous than the individuals which 

 have hibernated. This butterfly, however, is always scarce in spring. 

 In the last days of June, throughout July, and during the first three 

 weeks in August the fresh examples of the summer brood appear; 

 while alwaj^s more numerous than spring specimens, these are never 

 very common. Shortly before the first of September fresh butterflies 

 again appear, and by the middle of the month have become common. 

 They continue to emerge through warm periods in October and 

 November, and I have a freshly emerged specimen that I found dead 

 in Rock Creek Park with its wings still soft, in the middle of De- 

 cember, 1926. The adults of this brood hibernate, and together with 

 them some of the chrysalids winter over, from which the butterflies 

 emerge the following May or June, flying with ragged individuals 

 that have passed the winter as adults. 



Remarks. — This butterfly was very common in 1926, rather com- 

 mon in 1927, and very scarce in 1928, when only a very few w^ere 

 seen, never more than one in a day. In 1930 it appeared unusually 

 early, shortly after the first of May, and spring individuals, especially 

 freshly emerged individuals, were exceptionally common. At the 

 end of the season, late in September and in the first half of October, 

 the numbers were about the normal average. 



The American painted lady seems to differ from its immediate 

 relatives the painted lady {Pyrameis cardui) and the red admiral 

 {Py7'ameis atalanta) in occurring in only a single form. 



PYRAMEIS CARDUI (Linnaeus) 



Painted Lady 

 Plate S, Figures 1 to ,3 



Occurrence. — Usually frequent or rather common, in some years 

 abundant and in others very scarce, and often absent altogether. 



The painted lady is ordinarily a butterfly of (\vy open fields, waste 

 lands, and dusty roadsides, but in the years of its abundance it is 

 to be found from about the middle of July onward throughout the 

 open country and the drier woods, especially along the roads, in parks 

 and gardens, and even about the streets in all sections of Washington. 



There are two specimens from Washington in the National Mu- 

 seum, both taken on sunflower, one on August 8 and the other on 

 August 14, 1888, and also one from College Park, Md., taken on 

 August 6, 1914. 



Notes. — In the District the individuals of this butterfly are found 

 to differ more or less markedly from the specimens caught in the 



