APATURA I. 



first moult unci which not having reached the liybernating stage certainly perish. 

 But I doubt if the species is perpetuated by the others. The leaves are blown 

 fixr and wide, and in the district in which I live, the greater part of them find 

 their way into the river. If any caterpillar should survive the winter in such 

 cu'cnmstances, the chances would seem to be almost infinite against its reaching; 

 the food-plant. (See note.) 



The first butterflies from these hybernating larva? apjjear about the end of 

 May, at Coalburgh, and by middle of June, those which have come from the 

 eggs laid by hybernating females. Thenceforward, until October, an irregular 

 succession of the butterflies are on the wing, and the larva? are to be found at 

 every st-age of growth. It would appear by breeding from the egg, that occa- 

 sionally part of a summer brood stop feeding after the second moult, and com- 

 mence hybernating, but this is not always the case. 



I had known nothing of the preparatory stages of Celtis till 5th September, 

 1872, when a female was taken in my garden. I had planted there the previous 

 spring several small trees of the Hackberry, in the hope of alluring this butter- 

 fly, and on one of the bi'anches I tied the captive in a muslin bag. On the 7th, 

 it had laid a number of eggs, in clusters of six or more, upon the under sides of 

 the leaves. One cluster of seventeen was arranged in close rows of five with an 

 incomplete row of two, the eggs touching each other. (Fig. a.) On the 12th, the 

 larva? began to emerge, eating away the shell below the crown until this was 

 ready to break oiT and permit egress. I brought the liml) to the house and 

 placed it in a bottle of water. The little creatures seemed disinclined to feed, 

 and ran about the leaves, one after another dropping by the thread which it spun, 

 till it became certain that all would escape. This led me to break ofi" the leaves 

 and inclose with the larva? in a glass, and thereafter I had no trouble. Subse- 

 quent experience has satisfied me that this is one of the easiest species to rear, 

 and I have rarely lost one of a brood. On the 26th, they were passing the 

 second moult, and the stag-horn processes on the head were well developed. It is 

 the custom of these larvae from this stage to rest with the head bent forward 

 and downward, so that the face is flat on the leaf and the horns project in the 

 same plane, the back of the body being arched. (Fig./^.) They are disinclined 

 to move, and will remain many hours in the same position or place. Their man- 

 dibles are strong, and the thickest leaves seem to be preferred in feeding. This 

 is contrary to the habit of Lihythea, which feeds on the same tree, but seeks the 

 tender terminal leaves. Early in October, all these larvae had changed color 

 from green to brown, and sought the sides of the heavy midribs or depressions in 

 the surfaces of the leaves, remaining motionless. But then and at any time 

 during their hybernation, it was not difficult to rouse one from its lethargy. 



