PAPILIO III. 



Many eggs are destroyed by insects and spiders. There is a minute scarlet 

 spider scarcely larger than the egg itself, that mounts upon it and from a punc- 

 ture extracts the contents. I frequently met the shells so desi^oiled before I dis- 

 covered the cause and have since observed the marauder in its operations. I have 

 also lost in a single night, owing as I supposed to crickets, numbers of eggs laid in 

 confinement. 



The larvte, in every stage of growth, are to be found resting on the surfaces of 

 the leaves and one would suppose they must be nearly exterminated by birds. But 

 like all Papilio larvse, they emit from the head, at the same time that thoy project a 

 Y shaped tentacle, a peculiarly acrid and sickening odor which must clfoctually y>vo- 

 tect them. I have however seen spiders feeding upon them, attacking even the 

 head, and they have other enemies among the insects. They are very little troub- 

 led by ichneumon-flies in this valley, and I have rarely lost a chrysalis from that 

 cause. Consequently no Papilio is so abundant here throughout the season. I 

 find on breeding them that a considerable jiercentage of the eggs do not hatch, and 

 that more or less of the larvae die at every moult, as well, as in the effort to 

 change to chrysalids. Multitudes of chrysalids must be destroyed in the winter by 

 birds and mice as they are but imperfectly concealed under stones and roots or 

 even among the stems of the grasses. So that of the tens of thousands of eggs 

 that are annually deposited but a very small proportion produce butterflies, 



I am now clearly of the opinion that the number of each sex in any species of 

 butterfly is about equal. On counting the AJax that have emerged from chry- 

 salis the last two seasons, I find 78 S, 83 $, and with the Interrogationis, Comma, 

 and other species I find about thie same proportion. The scarcity of the females 

 noticed by all collectors is owing to their frequenting different localities from the 

 males. 



With regard to obtaining the eggs of any species of butterfly, after two seasons 

 exjjerience, I find not the least difficulty, provided the food plant be known. If, 

 on being confined with this, they do not immediately proceed to deposit their eggs, 

 it is because these are not matured. I have rei^eatedly failed with the large Ar- 

 gynuides until the month of September, and then have obtained hundreds of eggs. 

 The larvoe of Argynnis are the only ones however I have been unable to rear, 

 and so far I have failed in every instance, though with Ewptoicta Coluinbhia, 

 closely allied on one side, and the Vauessans on the other, I have had no difficulty 

 whatever. 



