PAPILIO VIII. 15. 



dozeu being seen on a long range of coa.st. The first Avere noticed at the begin- 

 ning of June. I think the rarity was produced by the want of the usual snow- 

 fall the previous winter. The depth of .snow is usually nine feet. Init was only 

 about two feet on the north shore in the winter of 1877-78. The food plants, 

 namely, Angelica perer/rina (not purpurea, as stated in the text to Plate VIII.), 

 and the Avild parsley were retarded by the cold weather. The first eggs were 

 deposited 14th June, l)ut a second batch was laid aljout middle of July. I 

 brought larva' with me to Montreal in. jelly glasses, and after the Angelica was 

 exhausted. I fed them on wild parsley ; but they eat very little of it and all 

 dwindled away and died. But my friend, Mr. Napoleon Conneau, of Godbout, 

 had .some of the larva?, and has since written me that although his fir.st trial with 

 the caterpillars was not successful, he has now four which are progressing favor- 

 al)ly."' These caterpillars reached chrysalis, and two of them were sent me by 

 Mr. Couper, as I have mentioned. 



I am pleased at being able to represent the preparatory .stages of Brevlcauda 

 in full, together with its food plant, Amjelica peregrhia, and to give its history as 

 worked out so successfully by Mr. Couper. 



Note. Some delay in the issue of the present Part gives me an opportunity to add further 

 information respecting Brevicawla and its history, kindly contriliuted by Mr. Mead. 



New York, September 23, 1880. 

 Dear Mr. Edward.s, — During my recent stay of three weeks in Newfound- 

 laud, I was very successful in obtaining caterpillars of P. Brevlcauda along the 

 shores of both Conception and Placentia Bays, on the peninsula of Avalon, which 

 was the only part of the island visited. In climbing a mountain at Topsail, 

 twelve miles from St. John's, I noticed one of these butterflies sailing about the 

 rocky summit, very much as P. Indra is always seen to do in the Sierra Nevada. 

 Like that species, it made long flights, rarely alighting, but apparently reconnoi- 

 tering the whole mountain, as if in search of plants on which to lay its eggs. 

 Chase would have been useless, so stationing myself on what appeared to be an 

 attractive gras.sy spot among the rocks, I waited for the insect and captured it 

 on the wing. It proved to be a female ; so confining it in a box uninjured, I 

 made diligent search for plants on which it might lay eggs. But umbelliferous 

 plants seemed very scarce throughout the country, and it was only by good for- 

 tune that I noticed an Antjelica o-rowino- in a field as we drove back toward St. 

 John's. The butterfly was confined with a stem of this plant, and laid nine eggs 

 and then escaped. None of the eggs hatched, however. This failure I attribute 

 to their having been kept from the sunlight, for the caterpillars afterwards 



