sATVitiXAK: cKHcvoxis ai.oim:. 169 



IMiss Soiilc sonic on Ani>-nst 11 at Stovvc, V't. Tlierc is then hut a 

 single hrood each year ; that this hukls true for the south as well as the 

 north is probable, for specimens sent nic from Texas by Mr. lielfrage, 

 were all collected in September, and according to him the females did not 

 begin to lay their eggs imtil the first of October, or at a period correspond- 

 ingly near the colder season. Yet there may easily be some erroi- in 

 this, for they have been bred in AVcst Virginia as early as June 1) by 

 Mr. Edwards. The eggs hatch in from twenty to twenty-seven days 

 (tvventv-three to twentv-fi\e beino- the most usual; this is the lono-est 

 period for hatcliing known to me among those butterflies which do not 

 hibernate in the egg state) — in the south sometimes in as short a time as 

 fourteen days, so that the caterpillars cannot appear in the northern states 

 until September or the very end of August, too close upon the winter 

 season to enable them to attain any considerable growth in the autumn : 

 and indeed, like the caterpillar of the nearly allied European butterflies, 

 Minois phaedra and Oeneis aello and many other satyrids, they hibernate 

 without having eaten a morsel of vegetable food. It seems hardly proba- 

 ble that some of the eggs remain unhatched until the spring, for, out of 

 the large number sent me or retained by correspondents, all, excepting the 

 shrivelled, unimpregnated ones, invariably gave birth to the larvae before 

 winter set in. Still their condition Avould seem to be very similar if they 

 remained in the egg ready to eat their way out. They are slow eaters in 

 the spring, do not usually change to chrysalis before July and after spend- 

 ing about a fortnight in that state appear again as buttei-flies. 



Flight, habits, etc. Cercyonis alope has a stronger flight than our 

 other satyrids, — occasionally a prolonged and rapid one, but it may usually 

 be seen tossing itself lazily in and out among the shrubbery at the edge 

 of a wood or by the bushes beside unfrequented roads. Gosse describes 

 it as wary and flying swiftly, " chiefly affecting lanes in the forests, but 

 coming occasionally into the gardens early in the morning." Allen says 

 it frequents the flowers of Coreopsis palmata Nutt. on the prairies of Iowa. 

 Edwards says that multitudes gather on the flowers of the hardhack 

 Spiraea tomentosa, which blooms in old fields in July, 



At night the butterfly rests upon the branches of low trees or shrubs, 

 probably hanging from the under surface of the twigs. At least this is the 

 conclusion reached by my experience in driving over the Nantucket moors 

 one August day. The wagon track along the broad main road is here 

 lined for a part of the way with a row of low pine trees, with an occasional 

 scrub oak ; the wind was blowing across the road ; it was about sLx 

 o'clock in the morning, and not a buttei-fly was naturally astir, but as we 

 rumbled along the road, hundreds of this butterfly were swept across our 

 track by the wind, forming indeed a continuous stream as long as the 

 fringe of trees contimu^d. Close examination without stopping but kept 

 up for half an hour, showed that they all came from the pine trees ; tha 



