50 THE REPORT OF THE [ No. 19 



Mr. Wells of Kansas, of a swarm which he saw in the middle of April, " that came 

 rapidly with a strong wind from the north-west," seema to be of somewhat uncertain 

 intf rpretation. But there is one thing I feel quite certain of,let Anosia Archippus, wherever, 

 or in which ever direction it might be going, get caught in a gale it would head against it. 

 I have sepn individuals of th^ m out in a gale that I could hardly hold against ; low 

 down, slowly but steadily making their way in the opposite direction, and that with little 

 •apparent flutt-^r of the wings but with them clos-ly reefed, until tired of the monotony of 

 the procedure, or not wishing to go anv further in that direction, they would suddenly 

 shoot up and get hurled fifty or more feet in the direction they had come, then turn and 

 go ■ hroagh the same performance over again. They may do the same in flocks, who can 



tein 



If I were undertaking to draw up a programme of the proceedings of this butterfly 

 from my abundant Inck of mftjrmation ; and ti lin;^ in wh*t I don't kajw with what I 

 think is moat likely, it would be something like this : Anosia Archippus is a southern 

 bu't*^ifly, wh'ch has inherited a powerful migratory instinct, and is endowed with a cap- 

 aciy to indali;e ic to th^ ut uost Lmit of its inclination. The northern portion of the 

 American Continent, is where it finds the conditions mist favourable for the multiplying 

 f f its spHoies to an unlimited extent. Bat it cannot endure frost, therefore goes souther- 

 ly in autumn, and with that purpose in view gathers into immense swarms before it 

 starts out. It makes the journfy in easy stages, spending months on the way. As it 

 dots not hibernate, it k'-epH on the move south-west until its breeding season comes round, 

 when these, or more sourherly bred specimens, start the northerly movement. Refer- 

 ei ce has been made to the habit of birds ; an excellent comparison for my purpose. We 

 know that they leave their southern residence for the north at a suitable period of the 

 year, ai.d by the time the species has reached its northern limit, thd whole continent is 

 unilormly stocked. No part missed, no part burdened with an over supply, and we 

 know that the southern ones will be breeding before the northern ones have commenced 

 building Apply the same principle to our butterfly ; only she has no building to do, and 

 no care to take of her young, so she is not required to settle down in one locality, but 

 may plxce one egg here and another th^re as she finds it conveniont and p%88 on. Now 

 I will accept and be guided by Mr. Edwards's observations in West Virgini*, as to her 

 conduct there*, but not his c inclusions. He says, (Psyche as previously quot^^d,) " Dhe 

 survivors (from hibernation) appear very early in the next spring, and are always faded 

 and more or less broken (From much exposure and lon>^ travel as I balieve.) They may 

 bn seen * * * the last of March ; * * the females deposit their eggs the last of Apdl 

 and tarly in May on the leaver of diflferent species of Asclepias, beginning as soon as 

 the plant-i are wh-U out of the groand, and thereafter, without doubt, soon die, after the 

 nj»nnf-r of their kind " In that we learn, that our southern born buttefly was not in a 

 CO di'ioQ wh n she reached Wts. Virginia to oviposit. That it took a month to mature 

 h«r e^gs. How m>iny of those who started out with her, spent that month in going 

 further north, and so have reached Ontario atiout their usual time] A few butterflies 

 will stock a locality with a speoien, if eggs are all laid together at one time ; which I think 

 is non thH ca.ae with this one, hence the absence of well d fined broods. And Mr. Edwards 

 proved that they do not "soon die" af oer finishing egg laying by capturing one on the 2nd 

 of Juop, with her ovaries quit<^ empty. So here we have still an interesting question to 

 settle, h >w long do they live before finishing, when they survive for sometime after ? 

 Again Mr. Edwards say ^, '* every female from which I have obtained eggs in coiifinement, 

 laer than M^y, and all those whiich I have noticed as they were ovipositing in natural 

 stati , havH b^'en fresh colored, and evidently not long from chrysalis; ([ have witnessed 

 similar pHi nomena in Ontario during the first part of July.) So I have no idna that this 

 spt cies diHers in this respect frono other butterflies. One brood of D Archippus succeeds 

 another ih> season through, the f males of each brood depositing their egg^ within two 

 or th^ee weeks after f merging from chrysalis, and soon after dying ; and the last brood of 

 the ye^r hibernates, the females not; to be impregnated till the next spring " Which 

 would be all correct, if we were dealing with a species that goes the round of its lift-'s his- 

 tory in one locality, hibernating therein winter, and producing its kind in summer, year 

 after >ea as t-o many do. But analogy fails us here; for we h*ve to do with a species 

 that nq lires the continent for a home, ranging from a difiaed northern limit on the one 

 hand, to an undefined southern extension on the other , with no apparent attachment to 



