154 BULLETIN 15 7, U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



(Psyche, vol. 32, no. 6, p. 297, December, 1925) . On August 25, 1930, 

 in a meadow at Newton Upper Falls, Mass., near Boston, we saw a 

 female and a large and a small male, and also two others in the 

 distance. On August 27 another was seen in the same place, but on 

 several subsequent visits none were seen. On September 3 one was 

 seen, among many C. fhilodice^ in a clover field at Charles Riverf 

 On August 28 the locality at Ipswich where we had found this butter- 

 fly in 1925 was revisited, and it was again found. On a trip from 

 Boston to Washington by way of the Delaware Water Gap and 

 Easton and Reading, Pa., this species was not seen until we were a 

 few miles south of Reading, when occasional stray individuals were 

 observed. But it was not at all common north of Baltimore. 



Seasons. — The orange clover butterfly first appears toward the 

 end of April, the males several days in advance of the females, and 

 soon becomes common, remaining on the wing until the last week 

 in May. Early in the second week in June the second brood appears, 

 and from that time on fresh individuals are seen continually until the 

 end of the season. In the last two weeks in July most of the individ- 

 uals are worn and faded, although fresh ones are always to be found. 

 About the first of August fresh butterflies begin to increase greatly 

 in numbers and to assume a somewhat difi^erent character, this advent 

 of fresh individuals representing the appearance of the third brood. 

 The butterfly is most abundant in the last half of August and the 

 first half of September. Fresh individuals are common until toward 

 the end of October and appear on warm days until late in November. 



Habits. — This butterfly closely resembles its yellow relative {C olios 

 philodice) in habits, but the large males have a higher and swifter 

 flight and are much more wary and difficult of approach. They 

 course rapidly about in a broad zigzag with frequent changes of 

 direction, usually 2 or 3 feet above the ground or grass tops. Males 

 of decreasing size show a corresponding approach to the habits of 

 the males of G. yhilodice., flying lower and less swiftly and in a 

 narrower zigzag composed of shorter lines; the habits of the very 

 small males only slightly flushed with orange on the disk of the fore 

 wings {ariadne) are indistinguishable from those of the males of G. 

 philodice. Furthermore, these males prefer the company of the 

 males of G. philodice to that of the large and highly colored males of 

 their own kind. They are sometimes to be found in the little com- 

 panies of the males of G. philodice sucking moisture from mud. 

 When so engaged their actions differ in no way from the actions of 

 their companions, from which they are indistinguishable until they 

 rise and by so doing display the slight orange flush on the fore wings. 

 It is curious that while the small males of the form ariadne are as 

 fond of sucking moisture from mud as the males of G. 'philodice, the 



