BUTTERFLIES OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 101 



But while the butterflies show a strong distaste for this plant, pre- 

 ferring to rest on almost any other, they never voluntarily wander 

 very far from it. They are most common in the grass from 10 to 20 

 feet from the patches of turtlehead, and the males and smaller 

 females are frequent up to about 150 feet away. 



In cloudy weather and on cool days the butterflies are very reluc- 

 tant to take wing. But on bright, hot days the males, especially the 

 smaller ones, are very active. They fly rather swiftly for their size, 

 with rather rapid wing beats and occasional glides, after the fashion 

 of Euptoieta claudia. Usually they keep near the grass tops, but 

 occasionally they will dart rapidly upward in an erratic zigzag to a 

 height of sometimes as much as 10 or 15 feet, soon coming down 

 again and perching on a grass blade. They will often go for a long 

 distance without alighting, sometimes even out of sight. On a hot 

 and sunny day these small males when they take wing are by no 

 means easy butterflies to catch, though when resting they are singu- 

 larly unsuspicious. 



The large females always are inert and when startled usually fly 

 only a yard or two, and seldom as much as 20 feet. They fly only a 

 few inches above the grass tops, with a weak and tremulous flight. 

 When resting they are wholly unsuspicious. Once seen, either on the 

 wing or resting, thej^ can invariably be caught. 



A captured female taken in the hand will sometimes feign death, 

 lying motionless on its side for several minutes. 



Season, — The turtlehead butterfly is on the wing from about the 

 end of the first week in June, or in some years the last of May, to 

 about the middle of July. My earliest and latest dates are May 30 

 and July 11. 



Up to 1930 my earliest date was June 11, but in that year I secured 

 three on May 30. The spring of 1930 was very cool and dry, and the 

 absence of hot spells probably accounted for the early appearance of 

 this butterfly. 



Remmrks. — The most practicable way of finding the places inhab- 

 ited by this butterfly is to search for the food plant, the common 

 turtlehead {CheJone glabra) — which is very easily recognized at all 

 seasons — ^toward the end of July when the large silk webs made by 

 the gregarious caterpillars are very conspicuous on the summits of 

 the stalks. A visit to the localities where these webs are found in the 

 middle of the following June will disclose the butterflies in abun- 

 dance, and also yield numbers of the conspicuous fully grown black 

 and orange caterpillars from which perfect specimens of the butter- 

 flies are easily raised. The caterpillars will be found not upon the 

 turtlehead, which at that time is only a few inches in height, but 

 resting on the grasses, cattails, and oiher plants, and especially upon 

 the dead stalks of herbaceous plants. 



