492 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1925 



Feniseca TARQUINIUS 



OcGwrrence and habits. — This curious little butterflj' has a very 

 wide range, occurring from Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Ontario south- 

 ward to northern Florida and the Gulf coast of Louisiana and west- 

 ward to Texas and the Rocky Mountains. Prof. C. V. Riley said 

 that it is also found in Asia, but this is an error. 



It is very local and consequently is seldom taken in general collect- 

 ing, but once its favorite haunts have been discovered it is easily 

 secured in quantity. 



Although collecting butterflies in Newtonville, Mass., and in the 

 surrounding region, and about my summer home in Manchester, 

 Mass., from 1890 until 1900 I never found it. In 1910, however, I 

 caught one in my front yard, the first I ever saw alive. In 1923 I 

 made a special search for it and located nine thriving colonies in 

 Newton (1), Newton Center (1), Newtonville (4), Auburndale (1), 

 and Weston (2). All of these colonies were singularly similar. 

 They were all centered on the woolly plant louse of the alder 

 {Schizoneura tessellata), and in all cases the alders were growing 

 close to running water in small meadows with wooded hills about 

 them. 



In 1924 I found a colony in Essex, Mass., on the main road from 

 Manchester just beyond the Manchester town line. This was a year 

 in which Vanessa cardui was exceedingly abundant, and consequently 

 was a poor year for other butterflies. It was exceptionally dry, and 

 the aphids did not thrive. The few aphid colonies found in Essex 

 and in Manchester did not seem to grow, and except for one were 

 quite neglected by the butterflies. Three of the four colonies in 

 Newtonville were revisited. Aphids were very few, and there were 

 no traces whatever of the butterflies or of their larva?, though in 

 the year preceding about 100 examples of all stages had been taken 

 from them without apparently at all diminishing their numbers. 



In 1925 the colony in Essex found in 1924 numbered about as 

 many caterpillars as in the year preceding, and caterpillars were 

 found in other aphid colonies about a mile away which the year be- 

 fore had yielded none. Caterpillars were also found near Gravel 

 Pond in Manchester. Of the three colonies in Newtonville one was 

 without caterpillars or butterflies, two butterflies were seen about 

 another, which showed evidences of the ravages of caterpillars 

 though none were found, and the third yielded a single caterpillar 

 and showed no traces of any others. All three of these localities have 

 now succumbed to building operations. 



This shows how uncertain is the occurrence of this insect in any 

 one locality. 



