MELIT.EA I. 



bordering on the Ohio River, and in Kansas. It is the only Mehttea which 

 inhabits the Atlantic slope, though from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific 

 the genus is numerously represented, and it is probably the only butterfly in 

 its district whose larvie construct and pass the winter within webs. It is 

 always local, abundant where found at all. and is usually to be seen only in the 

 vicinity of swamps. It is of slow and sluggish flight, and alights on the leaves of 

 shrubs and on the ground rather than on flowers. The life-history of this species 

 was long a mj^sterj', and has only come to be understood within the last five 

 years. In November, 1868, Mi-. Billings, Can. Ent. I., p. 28, writes that he has 

 " accidentally discovered a locality for this rare butterfly within two miles of the 

 city limits of Ottawa. It is in an open swamp, densely surrounded by coniferous 

 trees which are almost impenetrable, and occupies a space of eight or ten acres. 

 This season I watched faithfully- for the appearance of the imago, making occa- 

 sional visits to the spot during the month of June. It was first observed on the 

 3d of July, and between this and the 20th I made five or six excursions, captur- 

 ing over two hundred specimens. I seldom met them on the wing, but generally 

 resting on the alders or ferns." And Mr. Billings states that it is not improbable 

 that the species is double-brooded, judging from the fact that two years before he 

 had seen a female late in xlugust or early in September, which, as will appear, 

 must have been an exceptional occurrence. The food-plant Mr. Billings had not 

 discovered. 



In a subsequent number of the same volume, page 59, I communicated some 

 facts which I also had gathered. In May, 1868, a boy living in the neighborhood 

 of Coalbnrgh had bi'ought me several chrysalids o£ Phaeton, part of which he had 

 found suspended on the under side of fence rails close to a small swamp near his 

 father's house, and said that he had seen many caterpillars on the rails. Being 

 unable to go to the spot, I sent him back with directions to bring me caterpillars 

 and to search for the food-plant. A few days later he returned with about eighty 

 chrysalids and but two caterpillars, which changed immediately after I received 

 them. He reported that the caterpillars were running over the .branches of the 

 pawpaw bushes (Asimina triloba), though he could discover none feeding thereon, 

 and that such as he had taken had changed to the chrysalids brought in. The fol- 

 lowing year, 20th j\Iay, I was passing this place when my young collector told me 

 that he had found the plant Ave had been in search of, and would show it to me. 

 We went to the border of the swamp and he led me to a clump of Chelone glabi^a, 

 eaten nearly to the Avater, and said that this had been black with the caterpillars a 

 few days before. There were several other clumps in view, all much eaten, and I 

 succeeded in finding tAVO caterpillars on one of them. This plant is common in 

 swamps and in meadow brooks oA^er the northern part of the continent, and from 

 a large stool sends up iiiauy fleshy stems to the height of about three feet. 



