SATYRINAE: NEONYMPHA PHOCION. 207 



Life-history and habits. Very little is known of the seasons of this in- 

 sect, but tliere seems to be more than one brood a year, eggs being laid in 

 southern Florida, according to Edwards from Wittfeld's observations, 

 early in May and in July ; these were carried to imago (in the north) 

 early in August and at the end of August respectively. Abbot took the 

 butterfly in Georgia on June 5, Gosse in Alabama on June 12, while ac- 

 cording to Edwards' observations, the egg state lasts about six days, the 

 caterpillars require in the north from one to two months to feed up, and 

 the chrysalis hangs about ten days. It would seem probable that the winter 

 period is passed by the nearly mature caterpillar. 



According to Mr. Edwards, caterpillars reared l)y him in West Virginia 

 had only four stages (moulting but three times), while those reared for him 

 by Mrs. Peart in Pennsylvania passed four moults, and he compares the 

 diameters of the cast heads of the two sets : but his figures seem to make 

 it probable that he overlooked one moulting in his own observations, it 

 being highly improbable that in one moult the head should have enlarged 

 its diameter two and a half times, as his figures indicate ; while the dif- 

 ference between the size of the heads in the last moulting before pupa- 

 tion, would, if this error had been committed, be less than twelve per cent, 

 which the unquestionable diflference of twenty per cent at pupation would 

 make entirely probable. 



Abbot says that he found the butterfly common in Georgia " in oak and 

 pine woods, on the sides of the branches of trees." 



Desiderata. Though the early stages of this butterfly are now described, 

 its life history and seasons are almost w^iolly unknown and must be eluci- 

 dated by southern observers. Nothing is published of the habits or haunts 

 of the insect in any part of its life beyond the meagre fragments above ; 

 even its distribution is very imperfectly determined, so that were we not 

 acquainted with the early stages, we should have to consider this one of 

 our least known buttei-flies. 



LIST OF ILLUtiTBATIOy.S.— NEONYMPHA PHOCION. 



