230 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



tomed to fly higher than most butterflies. Constant, writing of the Euro- 

 pean species of Apatura says (Cat. lep. Saone-et-Loire, 31) : — 



Tliey seldom leave the grand routes, and the avenues of lofty forests. Far from 

 seeking flowers like other diuruals, they are particularly fond of the juices which 

 exude from wounded trees, excrement of every kind and even putrifying carcasses of 

 animals. One must hunt them in the morning, for it is only then that they lower them- 

 selves sufficiently in their flight to be taken by the net. 



"They never meet," says Haworth, "without a battle, flying upwards 

 all the while and combating with each other as much as possible ; after 

 which they Avill frequently return to the identical sprigs from which they 

 ascended." The flight of Potamis ilia is described by Meyer Diir as 

 resembling that of a bird of prey ; it rises to the top of the highest trees, 

 swee^is majestically in the air with occasional movements of the wings, 

 allows itself to descend gradually, flaps its wings again as if spying out 

 danger and then flies fitfully backward and forward until it alights on the 

 very spot of moist earth which it had left a few minutes before, and where 

 it will finally become a sure prey to its dangerous persecutor — the ento- 

 mologist. 



The butterflies are principally confined to the hotter regions of the 

 globe, but a few penetrate to the temperate zone ; both worlds nourish 

 them, but there are only two or three genera in North America. 



The egg of the European Potamis iris is described as resembling "a 

 fossil Echinus which has lost its spines ;" but that of our species of Chlo- 

 rippe closely resembles those of some Satyrinae. The caterpillars at birth 

 are remarkable for the brevity of the ranged hairs which cover them ; 

 when mature they are devoid of any prominences or heavy armature upon 

 the body, being clothed only with short hairs, but the head is usually 

 crowned with conspicuous tubercles ; the body tapers considerably toward 

 either extremity and causes the head to appear unusually large ; they live 

 singly when full grown (although the eggs are sometimes laid in masses 

 and they are then gregarious in early life) and often weave from the leaf of 

 the tree on which they feed a little nest, in whicli, when not feeding, they 

 remain concealed. They are very sluggish and when in motion keep the 

 head in constant movement to one side and the other. Newman (Illustr. 

 nat. hist. Brit. Butt., 73) gives the following account of the habits of the 

 European P. iris : — 



A portion of the leaf is consumed everyday, Ijut the mid-rib is left intact; and the 

 little creature, when resting from its alimentary labours, climbs to the denuded bristle- 

 like tip of this mid-rib, and there remains perfect^ motionless, Avith the anterior ex- 

 tremity raised. . . . The 15th of Novemlier it descended from the leaf, and, covering with 

 silk the rind of the twig immediately below the attachment of the leaf, grasped this 

 web firmly with its claspers, stretched itself out at full length, with its horns pori'ected 

 before it, and thus settled itself down to endure the winter's cold and the winter's 

 storms. This is always the case ; its models operandi is the same Avhether in a state of 

 nature or in the vivarium of an entomologist. Instinct, that infallible and inscrutable 

 guide, tells the unreasoning caterpillar that dehiscence of the leaf stalk will take place 



