118 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



lono-itiulinally striped with continuous oi' l)roken bands of color. Distant 

 rio-litly considers this a form of protective coloring, and even looks upon the 

 forked tail as in some measure protective, and on this type of larva as a 

 "very primitive form." He remarks (lihop. Mai., 37) : 



Dr. Weismann has made the most iirofound and philosophical study of larval char- 

 acters, principally as found in the Sphingidae, a family which strongly exhibits more 

 or less specialized larval markings. He considers tlie oldest Sphinx larvae as being 

 without markings and probal:)ly protected only by adaptive coloration and a large 

 caudal horn, etc. It is at least probable that the bifid tails of the Satyrinae fulfil an 

 analogous in'otective function with this caudal horn in the Sphingidae. . . With the next 

 stage of Sphingid evolution, where the larvae have become longitudinaly striped, we 

 may almost apply Dr. Weismann's very words to the Satj'rinae. — "The caterpillai's 

 thus marked must have been best hidden on those plants in which an arrangement of 

 parallel linear parts predominated ; and we may venture to suppose that at this period 

 most of the larvae of the Sphingidae lived on or among such plants (grasses)." 



The caterpillars eat slowly and are very long in attaining matur- 

 ity ; and as the egg and chrysalis states are usually longer than conunon, 

 the species of this group are almost without exception single brooded, 

 and, in the genus Oeneis, some species are supposed to tixlvc two years to 

 complete the cycle of growth. So far as known, the larvae feed only on 

 grasses and sedges.* It is probable that the larvae of nearly all the 

 species hibernate ; this is known or presumed to be the case in all our 

 own species. M. Marloy who seems to have been more successful in finding 

 the caterpillars of the European species than any one else, obtained them 

 all in the months of March, April and May.j 



In this subfamily are found some curious and instructive exceptions to 

 the general rule of pupation among the Nymphalidae, a family, which, 

 as is well known, suspend themselves by the hinder extremity during the 

 chrysalis state. In certain European species, whose transformations 

 were first studied by M. Marloy, the caterpillar goes beneath the ground 

 to pupate and forming a large oval cocoon or cell, composed of grains of 

 earth connected by a little silk, undergoes its transformations therein with- 

 out suspending or attaching itself in any way whatever. In one of our 

 species of Oeneis, as will be seen further on, we have an even more 

 extreme case. In another European species, Melanargia galathea, as 

 Mr. H. W. Bates informs me, Messrs. Hellins and Buckler have found 

 the chrysalis lying on the ground between stems of grass, the shrivelled 

 skin of the larva remaining attached to the hinder extremity of the chrys- 

 alis. Both Boisduval and Duponchel give a similar account of it, but 

 Hiibner represents it as suspended. Mr. Edwards has recently bred the 



* The only exception known to me is the witz also states (Stett. ent. zeit., xxii) lliat 



European Coeuonympha tiphon, the cater- all European species, except two, probably or 



pillar of which is said by Merrin to feed on certainly winter in the larval stage, and these 



lihytichospora, one of the Cyperaceae. exceptional insects, curiously enough, are al- 



t Ann. Soc. ent. Fr. vii, 263-7 (1838). Pritt- most the only ones which are double-brooded. 



