BUTTERFLIES OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 105 



infrequent or casual elsewhere. Wandering males are occasionally 

 noticed everywhere in open country. I saw a male in the Smith- 

 sonian Institution grounds on July 12, 1928, another on Seventh 

 Street near the Patent Office on August 15, 1928, and one at Fif- 

 teenth and U Streets NW., on July 12, 1930. Ernest Shoemaker 

 has specimens from Black Pond, Fairfax County, Va. 



The regal fritillary is a butterfly of open grassy fields with boggy 

 hollows drained by small streams that are not bordered, or at least 

 not completely obscured, by trees or bushes. It is a butterfly of the 

 open country and will not enter woods, nor ordinarily even go near 

 a tree. The females are found only in the general vicinity of marshy 

 spots, but the males wander widely. 



Habits. — The regal fritillary prefers more open and drier regions 

 than the other larger local fritillaries, and where it is most common 

 these are scarce. The males are often to be seen traveling over 

 pastures where the others are never found. The females are very 

 reluctant to leave that portion of a pasture representing home, and 

 probably most individuals, though more or less constantly on the 

 wing, do not wander more than a few hundred yards from the place 

 where they were raised. The dispersal of the females is along the 

 banks of streams or about boggy lowlands, and they are never seen 

 far from running water until early in autumn, when they scatter 

 more or less widely during the deposition of their eggs. 



The flight of the regal fritillary is rapid and direct; the wing beats 

 are less rapid than are those of the other larger fritillaries, and it 

 glides more frequently and for longer distances. It usually flies 2 

 or 3 feet above the grass tops, or from 3 to 5 feet above the ground. 



As was noticed by Mr. Scudder, the flight of the female is much 

 less vigorous and sustained than that of the male. The females 

 seldom fly higher than a foot or two above the grass tops, and never 

 fly far, suddenly dropping into the grass after traversing from 50 

 to 100 feet, their flight being more rapid and longer on hot and 

 sunny than on cool and cloudy days. 



Although usually keeping near the ground, this butterfly will 

 sometimes fly very high. I have seen a female pursued by two males 

 rise to a height of at least 100 feet. 



After about the first week of September the females become more 

 active and tend to wander more or less extensively over grassy areas. 

 They fly more strongly and swiftly than before, at a height of 4 or 5 

 feet above the ground. Every 100 feet or so they suddenly drop 

 into the grass, where they walk about depositing their eggs. After 

 a lapse of 10 or 15 minutes they are up and off again, usually con- 

 tinuing in the same general direction unless turned by woods or by 

 a tree. 



