1902 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 61 



A FEW NOTES ON DANAIS ARCHIPPUS. 

 By H. H. Lyman, Montreal. 



Were it not for its commonness, I think that this butterfly would be considered, as 

 suggested by the common name proposed by Dr. Scudder, the Monarch of North American 

 butterflies. 



It is so large, so strong of wing, and its colours are so rich that its pre-eminence is very 

 imarked, and it is so abundant, and so widely distributed that it must be familiar to even the 

 •most casual observer of nature. (Fig. 38.) 



<Fig. 38.) 



As boys, my brothers and I gave it the name of the "Large Striped Butterfly," Limeyiitis 

 J)isipp^ls being the " Small Striped Butterfly," and these names had certainly the merit of 

 being descriptive. 



But while this butterfly is so common and so easily reared, there is, perhaps, no butterfly 

 about whose life history naturalists have disputed more keenly, and notwithstanding all the 

 arguments and the evidence gathered, the facts have never been made sufliciently clear to pre- 

 clude further dispute. This shows what a fascinating study is Entomology. There is always 

 something still to be learned about even the commonest species, and everyone, no matter how 

 limited his or her means and time may be, can always add to our knowledge, if only the efibrt 

 be made in the right way. 



The points about which the dispute has chiefly raged are three ; 



1st. Does it hibernate ? 



2nd. How many broods are there ? 



3rd. How long do the individuals usually live ? 



Mr. Wm. H. Edwards has contended that the life history of this butterfly differs in no 

 •essential particulars from that of other hibernating species ; that in Virginia there are four 

 broods, the butterflies of only the last hibernating, and appearing on the wing early the next 

 spring, mentioning the last of March as the time of first appearance, eggs being laid last of 

 April or beginning of May, the 2nd May being mentioned, and the first brood from the hiber- 

 nators appearing at the end of May, 



The late Dr. Riley wrote, "They commence depositing eggs in the latitude of St. Louis 

 ■during the fore part of May .... Butterflies from these eggs begin to appear about the 

 middle of June." 



Dr. Scudder claims that in the north (Query : What is " the north " ? and where does it 

 begin in -coming up from ^ the south " 1) the species is only single brooded, that the country is 



